River Never Forgets (version 2)

Verse 1

Sixty years of porch swing creaking on a wooden rail

Porch light humming yellow where the cornfield sways

Aunt Jean kept telling stories only told once at the supper table

Before the kids had to learn them like the river has always done

I never figured she was talking about something older than our land

But tonight the current's whispering secrets it held for decades, hand in hand

Pre-Chorus

There's a language here I wasn't raised to speak

Something only water and twilight keep

Maybe stories don't disappear like mine did growing up

Maybe they just wait for someone who's willing to learn them too

Chorus

Oh the river never forgets a single name it held tonight

Grandfather's laughter and the summer I was left behind

Every current carries every secret it was ever told

I'm learning how to listen before the story grows old

Verse 2

The wind through those tall cattails sounds like a thousand whispers all at once

Names from family Bible pages I never thought I'd hear again tonight

Her blue dress glowing soft in that porch light like she stepped right out of silver frames

My grandma's hand on the rail the way mine is now

Both of us watching something older than our whole lives somehow

Pre-Chorus

There's a language here I wasn't raised to speak

Something only water and twilight keep

Maybe stories don't disappear like mine did growing up

Maybe they just wait for someone who's willing to learn them too

Chorus

Oh the river never forgets a single name it held tonight

Grandfather's laughter and the summer I was left behind

Every current carries every secret it was ever told

I'm learning how to listen before the story grows old

Bridge

Tonight's not about answers, tonight's just remembering who was here

The water don't lie for no one, only keeps what we held dear

If I spend my whole life running from what this land remembers

Then I'll never know it and when I'm gone there won't be anyone left to tell her

I think that's the difference between forgetting and forgiving — it's a choice to remember every single thing

Chorus

Oh the river never forgets a single name it held tonight

Grandfather's laughter and the summer I was left behind

Every current carries every secret it was ever told

I'm learning how to listen before the story grows old