Belated Promise Ring

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[Verse]
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Sunday morning, my Rebecca sleeping in with me again
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There's a kid outside the church kicking a can
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When the cedar branches twist she turns her collar to the wind
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The weather can close the world within its hand
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And my mother says Rebecca is as stubborn as they come
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They both call to me with words I never knew
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There's a bug inside the thimble, there's a band-aid on her thumb
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And a pony in the river turning blue
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They say, "Time may give you more than your poor bones could ever take"
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My Rebecca says she never wants a boy
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To be barefoot on the driveway as they wave and ride away
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And to run inside and curse the open door

[Verse]
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I once gave to my Rebecca a belated promise ring
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And she sold it to the waitress on a train
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I may find her by the phone book with a fashion magazine
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She may kiss me when her girlfriends leave again
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They say, "Time may give you more than your poor bones could ever take"
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I think I could never love another girl
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To be free atop a tree stump and to look the other way
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While she shines my mother's imitation pearls

[Verse]
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Sunday evening my Rebecca's lost a book she never read
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And the moon already fell into the sea
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Saw the statues of our fathers in the courthouse flower bed
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Now they blend with all the lightning-tattered trees
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They say, "Time may give you more than your poor bones could ever take"
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My Rebecca said she knew I'd want a boy
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A dollar for my boardwalk red balloon, to float away
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She would earn a pocketful to buy me more