Shikata Ga Nai, Oklahoma

[Verse 1]
The Hachiya persimmons get that chalky, dusty skin
Just before the first hard freeze in late October rolls in.
That’s how you know they’re ready, how you know the sugar’s right.
A bitterness you can’t rush, seen by a porch bulb’s light.
It’s a patience I inherited, a quiet kind of bet
On a sweetness I ain’t tasted yet.

[Chorus]
(Female vocal)
Some things you don’t mend
You just build around the break
Learn the angle of the bend
For goodness gracious sake

[Verse 2]
There's a coffee can of bent nails that he never threw away
In the back of the tool shed, smelling of red clay.
He’d squint down a two-by-four, a level in his eye,
And say, “The wood remembers the wind, so don’t you even try
To force a joint that ain’t true.” Then he’d tap the pieces home.
A language left in dovetails, a story in the bone.

[Chorus]
(Female vocal)
Some things you don’t mend
You just build around the break
Learn the angle of the bend
For goodness gracious sake

[Bridge]
And I see it in the mirror, some Tuesday afternoon,
The way my shoulders settle, humming his off-key tune.
My thumb testing the grain on a table I just bought,
Fighting a war inside my head he’d already fought.

[Outro]
(Female vocal, fading)
Shikata ga nai...
You build around the break.