Unsent Letter Home

Thanks go to Sarah N for help with collaboration, I maintain copyright to the song.

 

I go to work early ‘fore the sun comes up
The northern lights are shining as I warm up my truck.
I warm up my trunk, at the lights I stare;
I wish I had your fingers running through my hair.

We were wed in June, had a brief honeymoon,
We were just getting settled when our baby came to soon
Jenny came too soon, we were unprepared,
I wish I had your fingers running through my hair.

Jenny was sick, she was getting pretty bad
We needed money quick, so we mortgaged all we had.
We mortgaged all we had for a doctor’s care,
I wish I had your fingers running through my hair.

I needed better work for to pay off the loan,
But the local corporations were all cutting to the bone.
Cutting to the bone, good jobs were rare,
I wish I had your fingers running through my hair,

I heard that up north the jobs were good
I knew I had to leave you and I knew you understood
I knew you understood so I paid the airfare,
I wish I had your fingers running through my hair

I’m working at a job with better pay,
And I live in a flophouse 12 hundred miles away.
12 hundred miles away from Jenny and you,
but when the debts are paid we can start anew.

Things aren’t as easy as they used to be,
There’s a woman at the bar with her eye on me
Her eye’s one me, I’m tempted and I’m scared,
I wish I had you fingers running through my hair.

This is not the way I wanted it to be,
I keep seeing things I don’t want to see.
I don’t want to see the woman from the bar
but the distance from you, it seems so very far

I leave from work alone every day,
I drop on my knees by my bed and I pray
I pray that I’ll soon be with Jenny and you,
And we won’t be worried about bills that are due.

I pray that when I finally come home some day,
Jenny will remember her daddy far away.
Far away from her when she learned to talk,
When she took her first step, and she learned to walk

I’m cold and I’m alone, but I’m going to make do,
And I’d do it all again for Jenny and you.
Jenny and you are my only living cares,
till I once again feel your fingers in my hair