Hallowed Ground - Jason Robert Brown

I’m walking on hallowed ground

I’m breathing in ancient air

I’m hearing a long lost sound from the water down there

It’s a distant beat pulsing through the heat

Of the long ago

I’m walking on hallowed ground

I’m stepping on sacred bones

Another new fossil found in the silt and the stones

Just beyond this hill, in the sultry still

Of the summer

I am trying to find something I left behind

In the long ago

I’m walking on hallowed ground

I’m holding my daughter’s hand

I’m taking a look around where my dad used to stand

When he’d watch me play on some sun-scorched day

In the long ago

I’m following faded trails

From when I was twelve years old

I’m fishing out new details in the stories I’ve told

Like the hearts I broke, like the truth unspoken

In the summer

Turn a corner, and then I am right back again

In the long ago

See that kid in the breeze?

I keep telling him, «Easy does it»

That’s the problem with him

It was never that simple, really, was it?

I’m walking on hallowed ground

I’m checking out every clue

I’m seeing my life unwound and assembled anew

Then I hear that line, «Dad, relax, I’m fine»

And she’s running off

And she’ll stand here one day, watching me walk away

In the long ago

You can run, you can learn, but you’ll always return

To the long ago