2nd Place July/August Contest | “Mountain Blood”

Updated:

August 8, 2013 4:15 pm

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2nd Place
“Mountain Blood”
Matt Lowen
Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada

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He was born in North Carolina
In the year of who knows when
Underneath a moon shaped like a mandolin
They baptized him American in the Appalachian mud
There was tar on the heels of the man with the mountain blood

Just below the fall line
In a cabin on the hill
He grew up with the bible on the windowsill
The Carters on the radio sang songs of life and love
And the leaves turned color for the man with the mountain blood

Mountain blood
Flowing in my veins
Dogwood flowers
And railroad trains
The high water mark
From Noah’s flood
Couldn’t wash away
My mountain blood

He survived the great depression
Was too young for World War II
Spent nine months in Korea as a P.O.W.
The reds tried hard to break him down, but he wouldn’t budge
There was a fire in the heart of the man with the mountain blood

Mountain blood
Flowing in my veins
Dogwood flowers
And railroad trains
The high water mark
From Noah’s flood
Couldn’t wash away
My mountain blood

They brought him home in ’53, now he’s pushing 84
His old bones are wearing thin in an old folk’s home in Georgia
His kids are grown, his wife is gone
He knows he doesn’t have too long to wait
Before the autumn closes in
And those Carolina mountain leaves turn red again

Mountain blood
Flowing in my veins
Dogwood flowers
And railroad trains
The high water mark
From Noah’s flood
Couldn’t wash away
My mountain blood

Click here to see Matt Lowen’s American Songspace Profile.