There was a man who used to live by the ocean
But he never set foot in the sea
It made him nervous that the water was always in motion
And he feared the creatures who swam beneath
And when I asked him how he'd ended up there
Above a world he would never know
He said he'd driven all the way across America
And when he got to the edge, there was nowhere left to go

Nowhere left to go
Nowhere left to go
Nowhere left to go
Nowhere left to go

He said that nothing lives long, only the Earth and the mountains
As he quoted black kettle's death song
The words drifting off into the emptiness
Of this great land where we've never belonged
And while the frontiers are ever-expanding
Our living rooms fall into disarray
And no one seems interested in fixing what they've broken
They just sweep the pieces into the bushes and slip away

Slowly slip away
Slowly slip away
Slowly slip away
Slowly slip away

And now he and I watch the foxglove grow through the clearcut
Where a forest once grew high and wild
For what is a funeral without flowers
And ten thousand tombstones reaching for the sky?

Reaching for the sky
Reaching for the sky
Reaching for the sky
Reaching for the sky