Lost in Southeast Georgia

Lost in Southeast Georgia

(Song Lyrics)

(Chorus)

The night can get dark in southeast Georgia,

When the moon refuses to shine;

A man can get lost in a memory

And never find his way through the pines.

I had lost my job and my family;

The bottle had become my closest friend;

We had reached an understanding--

It was driving me around the bend.

I woke up in a haze one Monday morning

In my car on some deserted road,

Parked beside an old abandoned graveyard,

Hidden in a moss-covered grove.

An old black man worked among the tombstones,

Cleared away the weeds with tender care;

On a tiny unmarked grave he left a single rose:

The only sign a child was buried there.

(Chorus)

I asked the old man how to get to Kingsland--

I thought I needed to get back to town.

He started talking as he kept on working;

And so I just followed him around.

He said, “I don’t get paid for what I’m doing--

Cleaning white folks’ graves all the time;

Most of the folks here are forgotten;

But that one with the rose, you see, is mine.

I loved a girl when I was younger--

I knew in my heart our love was right;

But folks around here would not let our love come to be,

Because I’m black, you see, and she was white.

Still we met each other in the darkness--

A child was born, they said they could not save;

They buried her unsung in this lonely oak grove;

But they would even mark her grave.

(Chorus)

Suddenly a light flashed all around me:

I heard a voice that I had heard before,

“Don’t get lost in the in the days behind you;

Right before you stands an open door.

You should know that I’ve always loved you;

I just had to call you one more time;

For though you’ve lost your way, I have called to say,

‘The rose within your heart, you see, is mine.’”

The night can get dark in southeast Georgia,

When the moon refuses to shine;

A man can get lost in a memory

And never find his way through the pines.

©Qoheleth, 2012