Lost my daddy this spring
Got thrown off track
Quit a job that worked me hard
They didn't hire me back
Joke's on them, honey
I became a good dad
Ain't no boss gonna get my best work
I ain't the sweat that I sow
That the rich are gonna reap
I'm whatever growing things
Are gonna make out of me
There's a rage in my belly
That I've learned to keep
Maybe rage is the kind
Of hope these days need
Thoughts and prayers
And feelings and words
Every seed's gotta grow
In some kind of dirt
What's my body
But a piece of aching earth
Growing thoughts and prayers
And feelings and words
I been paid to live half
The news made in Tennessee
To walk the trail
Of our lead poisoning
It will steal your children
It will rot your teeth
Make you numb to the feeling
Of grieving things
Fill you with thoughts
And prayers and feelings and words
Planting cursed seeds
In some graveyard dirt
What's my body
But a piece of aching earth
Tired of thoughts and prayers
And feelings and words
I spent these years collecting my check
Trading off anger for bits of rest
If the work won't kill
You then Tennessee will
It ain't the way that it is
It's the way it's been built
My daughter got her daddy
Back last spring
From the belly of a whale
That swallowed everything
I returned with a rage
At what it stole and what I'd seen
Maybe rage is the kind of hope
That these days need
