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she opened her mouth
that kentucky church door,
and all the birds came out,
honkeytonk whiskey and river bottom
catfish and fog and brown water
and some raw,mean old barrelhouse woman
that lived inside her opened her mouth
and sang out knives, and razors and done-me-wrong
she carried that hurting woman in her mouth
a secret everybody knows
till she could wail, all bright eyed
till the music fell back
and went away, till the angels
pulled their wings over their eyes
and the clocks just hung their mouths open
just a long sweet lonesome note
that crawled into your guts and made a home
singing the blood like a river, the heart like a sun
the bones like hills in the morning,all rock and antler
and that song tearing you down and stitching you back together
that song like a name you forgot
like a hymn in a graveyard of teeth,
hillbilly praise song
you always knew, plain and true
simple as morning, jesus knocking on the door
of her throat, whiskey river coal barge,
simple as truth, as birds
and fog in the hills, deer in the corn.