Morning is the Long Way Home



by Leo Kottke

Copyright 1973 Overdrive Music/ASCAP

recorded by Leo Kottke on:

1973 "Ice Water" (Capitol)

1987 "The Best of Leo Kottke" (Capitol)



I heard your voice at midnight

By the river shore

I saw your child sleeping

Behind an open door

The moon was in the river

Shining up from the floor

And the fish swam like moonlight

Through your child's closing door

And morning is the long way home



The fisherman was drowning

By his broken heel

His screams were tiny bubbles

And his tongue made of steel

When he died his teeth made stones

For your lonely child to feel

And his eyes like prayers were quiet

When you heard his tongues of steel

And morning is the long way home



The ghost of ghosts was passing

And the grasses waved like hair

I Knew I'd die forgotten

I'm the whisper of your care

The water would surround me

And my body would despair

But my heart would understand

The door that's closing there

And morning is the long way home