Virginia

She got off the morning bus,
the farthest stop from home.
A stack of letters and a carpetbag
was all she called her own
She came knocking on our front door,
as the storm began
That summer I was still a boy,
who dreamed of loving like a man
Now her memory haunts me,
and I just can’t shake her free
It’s summer in Raleigh
and Virginia’s walking through my dreams
She wore dresses on the hotter days,
tied her long hair back
Sang out loud to the radio
and threw her head back when she laughed
She had the keys to heaven tied up
in her apron strings
When the rain soaked that cotton through,
I could head the angels sing
Thunderstorms in August, firefly in a jar
She gave it to me on my birthday,
said the caught a shooting star
The summer I was old enough,
to walk to school alone
She left a letter on the kitchen table,
saying, «find me when you’re grown»