Fallow Ground

[Chorus]
She's tearing out the root stock now
Letting all the fallow ground go wild
It's a perennial kind of joy
A fierce, perennial kind of joy

[Verse 1]
Delia on the third-floor ward draws a garden on the tile in chalk
Says her whole life up to August was a long and barren winter stalk
She palms the cup of water from the 2 AM night nurse's tray
And pours it on a vine she drew, then watches it evaporate

[Chorus]
She's tearing out the root stock now
Letting all the fallow ground go wild
It's a perennial kind of joy
A fierce, perennial kind of joy

[Verse 2]
I mop the scuffs around her bed, the smell of bleach and turpentine
She's painting over photographs with shades of unfamiliar green
She told me once, "You can't replant until the soil's been turned and bled."
Then quoted from a seed-pack, "Sow directly in the flowerbed."

[Bridge]
The barometric memory drops
A killing frost before the crops
Are even in, but she don't care
There's just the new bloom in the air

[Chorus]
She's tearing out the root stock now
Letting all the fallow ground go wild
It's a perennial kind of joy
A fierce, perennial kind of joy

[Outro]
(Harmony stacks enter here, layered, ethereal)
A perennial kind of joy
A vacant, fierce, and floral joy