"Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" lyrics - THE DECEMBERISTS

Soldier:
Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind

Girl:
Far from the hills of the sea-swaled Carolinas
That's where my true love lies

Ah ah ah...

Soldier:
Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high

Girl:
But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils
All a-chew on your bones so dry

Ah ah ah...

Both:
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then I will be home then
I will be home then, I will be home then, then

Girl:
When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in

Soldier:
There at the fair, when our eyes caught, careless,
Got my heart right pierced by a pin

Ah ah ah...

Soldier:
But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile?

Girl:
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child

Ah ah ah...

Both:
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then I will be home then
I will be home then, I will be home then

Soldier:
Stems and bones and stone walls too
Both:
Could keep me from you
Soldier:
This skein of skin is all too few
Both:
To keep me from you

Both:
But oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind

Ah ah ah...