He Did - Anaïs Mitchell

Love you, love you, love you

He did, he did, he did

He stood high above you

You were just a little kid

Your daddy was a farmer

His back was burnished red and gold

And every time he closed his eyes a rooster crowed

He sowed a hundred rows of corn

The summer you were born

And wondered what your life would yield

How it feels to be a child of his, how it feels

Your daddy was a builder

He swung his hammer brown and silver

Every time he closed his eyes a nail was drove

And you were always underfoot

Like a splinter in the wood

He couldn’t pull you from his heels

How it feels, how it feels

Love you, love you, love you

He did, he did, he did

He stood high above you

Sky around his head

Sawdust in his hair

A scarecrow of a man

He couldn’t draw you near to him

But you grew up straight and you grew up true

And he kept a blue-gray eye on you

Until the day he closed his eyes and left them closed

Your daddy didn’t leave a will

He left a shovel and a hole to fill

And how it feels, how it feels

How it feels to be a child of his

How it feels to be alive like this

But who gave you an axe to grind?

Who gave you a path to find?

Who gave you a row to hoe?

Who gave you your sorrow?

Who gave you the break of dawn?

A pleasure just to look upon

Who gave you a barn to build?

And an empty page, to fill