[Style: 90s Country Ballad, acoustic guitar, steel guitar, emotional narrative, slow crescendo]
[Tempo: 76 BPM]
[Verse 1]
Billy was ten with a brand new bike
Riding the trails that his daddy liked
A girl moved in down the gravel lane
With grass on her knees and a daisy chain
He wanted to race through the woods alone
With a pocket of rocks and an old sling stone
He looked at his mom with an angry frown
When she said take the girl to the edge of town
He kicked at the dirt and he started to cry
Saying, "Don't make me bring her, she'll just slow me down."
[Chorus]
Leave her at home, let me go by myself
She’ll ruin the day, put her back on the shelf
She’s just a girl and she doesn't belong
In the dirt and the dust where the big trucks run
Don't make me bring her along
[Verse 2]
Eight years flew like a shooting star
Billy was driving his granddaddy's car she
was riding shot-gun in the seat
With a prom dress on and her silver feet
They pulled into town by the old bank square
When the lightning struck and the smoke hit the air
The river was rising, the levee gave way
Trapping them both in the pouring gray
He looked at the boat with just one seat left
And pushed her up high with his very last breath
[Chorus]
Take her ashore, don't you worry 'bout me
Get her out of the storm, get her safe by the tree
She’s got a life and a beautiful dream
Don't let her sink in the mud of the stream
Just take her and leave me behind
[Verse 3]
A decade went by on a ring
prayers keeping each other safe.
With a small white house
and a rocking chair.
I wished I had been with her on that day, to keep her safe…
The monitors beeped in the hospital room
While the autumn wind brought the midnight gloom
The nurse walked out with a heavy head
And told him the words that he always dread
I’m sorry, tell her goodbye
there is nothing we can do
her heart is about done
Billy fell down on the cold tile floor
And begged the Lord through the closing door
[Bridge]
[Steel guitar cries out, fiddle slows down to a soft weep]
Take my tomorrow, take every cent
Take all the years that I haven't spent
I’ll give you my hands, I’ll give you my breath
Just walk her away from the shadow of death
[Final Chorus]
Don't take my world she’s always been my best friend,
she's the light of my life.
Instead take the light you burn in my chest. Let her stay through the rest,
I’ll wait for her in my rest.
I can't be a husband without my sweet wife
I’m on my knees on this hospital floor
Take me instead, lock me under the door
Oh, Father, don't take my world
she’s always been my best friend, the light of my life.
Instead take the light you burn in my chest.
Let her stay through the rest,
I’ll wait for her in my rest.
[Outro]
[Acoustic guitar softly strums to a slow fade]
Keep her right here.
Don't take my world
she’s always been my best friend, the light of my life.
Instead take the light you burn in my chest.
Let her stay through the rest,
I’ll wait for her in my rest.
Amen.
Amen.