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Spoken version
A recorded reading of “Stayed for the Song”. If the player does not load, use the original audio source.
At one yellow light the bar holds the road open. Dust settles where the bus was. Your key warms in my coat, a small tooth of metal against my ribs. He keeps my brother's ring beside his glass. The case leans by the door. No one asks what is inside. From the back room you play three notes, stop, play them again. The chain still catches. The fan turns once. You strike a match beneath the lamp and the room takes on a second kind of daylight. He watches the gun hit pine and keeps his hands in sight. Then he pushes the ring into the light. You say, Take the back road. You say, Do not say my name. Rain comes through the screen, and the three notes follow it. I leave his door unbroken. The gun stays in the grain. By dawn, the key is still in my coat. Behind me, the song continues through the room, through the rain, past the place where my name would have ended.
Lyrics
The bus left dust on the road Your key burned through my coat The bar wore one yellow light And the dead fan turned slow He held my brother's ring Like a debt in his hand I set the case by the door And let the silence stand You kept the back room open With the chain still on the door I heard three notes behind you And forgot what I came for I came for the gunfight I stayed for the song I laid down my gun And walked into dawn He watched the gun hit pine And kept his hands in sight He pushed my brother's ring Into the lamp's hard light You struck a match and told me Take the back road out I left his door still standing And walked the long way out The three notes kept on ringing The rain came through the screen I had a road behind me And a road I had not seen I came for the gunfight I stayed for the song I laid down my gun And walked into dawn I could have made a widow I could have dug a grave You sang the part I forgot The gun can stay where it lies I came for the gunfight I stayed for the song I laid down my gun And walked into dawn I came for the gunfight I stayed for the song You left the door unlatched I walked into the rain Stayed for the song Stayed for the song
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