I carved a long line
in the bark of a spruce
and its sap smelled like medicine
as it dribbled and oozed,
and I remembered a moth
I’d seen fossilized in amber
for a hundred million years,
and I started to wonder,
had I signed my name there,
on the bark, in the resin?
Would my sticky sap fingerprints
forever stay frozen?
I walked a long line
in the slush by the highway
with my thumb aimed at Port-aux-Basques
and the cars splashing by me,
but no one pulled over,
and my thumb ached with anger,
so I stomped back through my footprints
all the way home to Gander.
And I’d signed my name there
on that long dotted line,
I can still see it now,
even though it’s July.
I cast my long line
out into Deadman’s Pond
and I stood there until
I felt it tug on my hand,
and I reeled it in slowly
through the reeds and the mud
til a stubborn trout stared up at me
from his little cloud of blood.
And I would’ve signed my name there
in the sand by the pond,
but it was already there,
it was there all along.
credits
from Topiary,
released February 28, 2017
Lyrics by Matthew Hollett
Vocals by April White
Recorded by Michael Venart
Electric Guitar by Mike Connolly
Acoustic Guitar by Stephan Walke
On “Meet Me By the River,” Dawn Landes’s self-described “Nashville record,” buoyant country melodies settle deep into lush instrumentation. Bandcamp New & Notable May 7, 2018