Mulberry shade

“Mulberry Shade”  
(Slow. Minor key. Sparse guitar. Lo-fi feel, air between lines.)
[Verse 1]  
Down past the mulberry shade  
Where the gravel road gives way  
I met a girl with Sunday eyes  
And a voice too tired to pray  
She said, “The Lord don’t walk this far  
Ain’t no light where I reside.”  
Then smiled the kind of smile that burns  
When something’s died inside.
(bass hums in, lazy rhythm)
[Verse 2]  
Her daddy ran the sawmill  
Till the bank man took his land  
Mama left for Tennessee  
With a Bible in her hand  
She learned to fight the hunger  
With whiskey and a grin  
And every time I saw her there  
She looked more born of sin.
[Chorus – held low, mindful space]  
Oh Lila Mae… under mulberry shade  
The world turns slow when debts get paid  
You can’t hide truth in river clay  
Not when the blood still calls your name.
(long pause – fingerpicking fills silence)
[Verse 3]  
Found her locket in the shale  
By the runoff creek at dawn  
One muddy track through dew-soaked grass  
One line of steps was gone  
They said I must’ve dreamt her  
That she never sung at night  
But I hear her hum through the willows  
When the moon’s just right.
(snare brushes, slow heartbeat pulse)
[Verse 4]  
Don’t ask me what redemption means  
In a town built mean and small  
Some things you bury deep enough  
They rise to haunt us all  
The earth don’t choose the guilty  
It just swallows what we make  
And keeps its silence heavy  
Beneath the mulberry shade.
[Final Chorus – whispered, fading slow]  
Oh Lila Mae… under mulberry shade  
The heart forgets but time won’t fade  
You can’t pray wrong into decay  
Not when the blood still calls your name.
(instrumental fade — one low chord rings out)

Outlaw country baritone, male