When I Die or Funeral Song

from Olds by John William Watkins

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lyrics

When I die cut me up
And feed me to the pretty paper dogs
If you hear them somewhere out the back door
Do not feel inhumane
But bear the thought and throw me at their feet
So in time no tooth or bone of mine will be

CHORUS
Brother lay your best suit out on the bed
Sister put your black dress on
And paint your lips red
Mother go off Cryin and be so unhappy
But don't you sing no funeral song
Don't sing no funeral song
Sing something happy and sing it joyfully

Throw me up in the wind
Into the lips of starlings and of crows
If you hear them somewhere out the back door
Let them steal up with my
Heart inside their bellies and in time
All my grief will be leveled stone by stone by stone

Plant me deep in the ground
In the later greater days of spring
In the black dirt there outside your back door
And I'll know what to be
& what direction I'll take & my time will be spent
Without a thought of reason for the tree

credits

from Olds, released April 8, 2019

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John William Watkins Iowa

"Watkins has mastered the art of expressing human emotions in a way that keeps them relevant to anyone with heart, while remaining true to his specific experience. This is not the moon, or June romanticism enshrined in 20th-century pop songs. It’s something else: lovely and valuable."

-Kent Williams/Little Village ... more

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