The Marble Man

(Click box above to hear a midi version of a rough draft for this one)

The Marble Man

Verse:

How did it feel to be home in Virginia,

to leave the haunted battlefields behind?

Did you still hear the cannons and the rifles?

Did sounds of dying men still fill your mind?

Verse:

Remember when you rode from Appomattox.

Did Union soldiers stand up and salute?

You'd worn your uniform and sword in scabbard

to end the bloody war of gray and blue.

Chorus 1:

And did you really live up to your legend-

a southern knight of gentil chivalry?

You bore the burden of the lost rebellion.

You held the old south's battered hopes and dreams.

Verse:

How did it feel to see the south-land burning?

And did you question God at Gettysburg?
How did you keep your courage, faith, and honor
when lines of friend and foe were ever blurred?

Bridge:

How did you hold the strength of your convictions?

Was loyalty a blessing or a curse?

You sought the better angels of our being.

But in the midst of war you saw our worst.

Chorus 2:
You'll live forever as a man of marble-
A distant, mythic figure cast in stone-
A Washington who did not win the glory.
But were you ever truly flesh and bone?

Verse:

How does it feel to be home in Virginia-

immortalized, forever set in stone.

Do you still hear the cannons and the rifles

In secret thoughts that will remain unknown?


-J.S. , (2001/2010)