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Caroline
central Indiana was anything but still
when a summer storm came reeling through a graveyard on a hill
the wind was feeling wicked as it tore a headstone down
and the ghost of my dead woman came rising from the ground
I am not a man of wisdom and I have no fear of God
I believe a body peaceful as it turns beneath the sod
so when Caroline came calling from the soil where she slept
I did not pray for redemption just lowered my head and wept
Caroline Caroline once you were lovely once you were mine
Caroline Caroline sweet are the moments short is the time
Caroline
they say in Indiana men go crazy from the heat
the ladies run in circles and the children cluck their tongues
the dead seek absolution as they wander through the streets
sometimes in a lifetime a woman dies too young
they say she spooked the cattle and the cattle spooked a mare
the mare she broke a lantern setting fire beneath the stairs
the fire reached the tower taking everything it could
and when the sun burned out that evening the church no longer stood
Caroline Caroline once you were lovely once you were mine
Caroline Caroline sweet are the moments short is the time
Caroline
lad you best come quickly someone near me said
your woman's in the schoolyard and they've trapped her in a shed
the parson has a pistol and the sheriff has a torch
when the boards have got that fever they'll be watching it up North
so I hurried to the parson with everything I'd heard
and I told him of that woman that I knew upon a time
he listened to me fiercely and with my final words
asked for forgiveness for the body and the soul of Caroline
Caroline Caroline once you were lovely once you were mine
Caroline Caroline sweet are the moments short is the time
Caroline
now Indiana's quiet and Indiana's still
and Caroline is buried in that graveyard on the hill
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