“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)
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