A Wellspring Grin

[Verse 1]
The folded chairs are from the Baptist church down on 412.
We sit and watch the water bead on the window shelves.
Smell of damp wool coats and coffee gone cold since a little past six,
Waiting for the man from Little Rock to tell us what he'll fix.

[Chorus]
But we got a wellspring grin they can't tax or take.
A quiet kind of hallelujah for the stubborn mistake
Of thinking that this ground is just dirt on a map.

[Verse 2]
He pins his charts up on the corkboard, talks about the flow,
The cubic feet per second, the things our granddads didn't know.
He says, "Now folks, let's be reasonable," and points down at the creek,
Like it isn't the same water that has chapped your mother's cheek.

[Chorus]
'Cause we got a wellspring grin they can't tax or take.
A quiet kind of hallelujah for the stubborn mistake
Of thinking that this ground is just dirt on a map.

[Bridge]
He doesn't see the roots that tangle deep inside our chests.
He doesn't hear the hum of what this quiet testifies.
This joy ain't a flower, it's a seed that passed the test.

[Outro]
Just dirt on a map.
We just smile back.