Shadow of the Cloud¶

Lyrics

SHADOW OF THE CLOUD

I mixed the tank while the house was still
Pouring a blessing from a five-gallon kill
White jugs stacked like a monument of salt
We did what we did, and it wasn’t our fault
The rows needed saving and the bank needed grain
So we fired up the trucks and a yellow plane
We learned young what the dirt wouldn’t give
And how a man goes broke just to watch the harvest live

     And you can scrub your hands ‘til the skin turns red
     But you can’t wash away what’s already dead
     It hangs in the air, sweet and low
     A ghost in the lungs that waits and grows
     Yeah, the fields turn green, and the debts get paid
     But we’re dying in the shadow of the cloud we made

T-shirt soaked where the nozzle leaked through
And a stain on my skin that I couldn't undo
The spray-rig humming like a funeral bell
Buying us a season in a chemical hell
Daddy said, "Son, hold your breath when you turn"
But he never said nothing 'bout the way it would burn
He’d wash his face with the garden hose
And wipe the death right off of his clothes

Repeat Chorus

I don’t blame the men who taught me the trade
They were terrified of the debts they’d made
You can’t fight the weevil with a prayer and a plow
And you can’t feed a family on the here and the now
So you trade away your breath for a yield per acre
And you pray for some mercy from the undertaker

I left that dirt, but I brought it along
In the marrow of the bone, in the silence of a song
Now the air in my chest feels heavy and still
Like the bottom of a hollow or a tank meant to kill
It takes a whole lot of work to keep a field in the black
When the price of the yield is the shirt on your back

I still see those jugs, bleached out in the sun
Like rows of headstones when the day is done
We weren't out to change the world, or even claim a right
Trying to keep a family tree from catching fire at night

But the soil’s gone sour
And the leaves are thin
And I can still smell the sweetness
Settling on my skin