Dancin' Moon Songcast Ep. 33 What I Got

Featured song from 2015's Circuitous & Before the Great Divide Double LP 

What I Got

I’m the poet without a pen,
and the priest who can’t hear God;
I’m the dancer with two clubfeet,
and the farmer who can’t break the sod,
yeah, I’m the farmer who can’t break the sod.

Mine’s the wagon with square wheels,
and the house without a door;
my only hat doesn’t fit my head,
and my feet won’t touch the floor,
no, my feet never touch the floor.

I got the key that fits no lock,
and the kite that has no tail;
I got sand when I needed a rock,
and a plan that’s already failed.
If I lost all my teeth but two,
they’d be both on the bottom side;
If I played hide-n-seek with a blind man,
I’d still have no place to hide,

because, some folks get the short end;
I’ve never even seen the stick.
Well, you might feel some sympathy
if you saw the wounds I sometimes lick.

My true love said goodbye to me
on the day before we met;
the life I dreamed was stillborn,
but I ain’t through with dreaming yet.
See, I set out to touch the moon,
but I couldn’t get past the sea;
then the moon, she danced across the waves—
that night she came to me,
I sang, and the moon, she danced with me.

(instrumental)

It ain’t about how you bargain,
it’s what you give when the rest will not.
It’s an empty hand and an open heart
when the song is all you’ve got,
yeah, this song is what I’ve got,
oh, my song is what I’ve got.

‘Cause the poem don’t need the pen,
and the priest, he can’t speak for God.
You gotta dance as graceful as you can
‘till they lay you down in the sod—
no, I’m not afraid ‘cause I know, some day,
gonna lay me down,
gonna lay me down to rest in the sod.

 

Also available on...

Also available on...