Lyrics

don't put ideas in her head
her young and blessed head
she came not long ago
I suspect she may still remember
the place where secrets are kept
we should be asking her instead
why do some trees grow so tall
while the dragonfly lives but one season
ask her where is god

when she was young she said to me
this world is one big house, Emily
I do not know this world, she said
we walked below a skytrain
I wish I'd asked her, Madeline
what happens to a dead man's soul
but she was only two years old
I wish I'd asked her who and why
how and where is god

I still remember in those days
when I was very small
too small to be alone
my mother watched from the window
a ceremony in my hands
I held it in the sticks and stones
I heard it in the heaving wind
I wore it in my ancient bones

I rearranged the poles
I moved the universe
I ordered up the the stars
consoled this haggard earth

a steeple nor a cross
need have marked a holy place
a river or a mossy bank
a rock of any shape
answered
where is god