Dust in Their Eyes

There’s a shuffle in the barn where the shadows grow,

A wheezing in the wind where the corn don’t blow.

Jimmy says it’s nothing, just the rusted plow,

But I see moonlight shining on a sunken brow.

Mamaw swore she saw 'em by the creek last night,

Lurching through the water in the pale moonlight.

Their hands like branches twisted, reaching for the sky,

But you know they ain’t praying with that dust in their eyes.

Dust in their eyes and dirt in their clothes,

Dragging through the fields where nothing else grows.

They don’t speak, but silence carries their cries,

When the dead walk the valley with dust in their eyes.

Old preacher left his Bible by the church hall door,

Said he couldn’t face ‘em like he had before.

He took the last train out to anywhere far,

Left his faith on the tracks like a falling star.

Daddy’s got his shotgun loaded with shells,

Says he’s seen ‘em rising where the meadow fell.

I don’t know what they’re after, but it ain’t no grain,

A hunger like theirs don’t know no man’s name.

Dust in their eyes and dirt in their clothes,

Dragging through the fields where nothing else grows.

They don’t speak, but silence carries their cries,

When the dead walk the valley with dust in their eyes.