Forty Summers Gone

Intro

He came at daybreak (He came at daybreak)

A stranger with a paper and a saw

Nobody warned me

Forty years to reach the open sky

One loud hour to end it tonight

Chorus

Cut it down (Cut it down)

Forty summers to reach the sky

Gone in a Tuesday morning now

The sap still runs in the sawdust there

The roots still hold the yard tonight

It grew past the point of cutting down (Cutting down)

Drop

Cutting down

Point of no growing back

Verse 1

Early frost

Chainsaw at the gate

Two men and a tipper by the fence

I still had the letter in a drawer

The phone lay charged beside the bed

I watched the crown go down instead

Pre-Chorus

Look up

Look hard

Watch the crown take one more ring

On me

On you

On everything that climbed it as a kid

Chorus

Cut it down (Cut it down)

Forty summers to reach the sky

Gone in a Tuesday morning now

The sap still runs in the sawdust there

The roots still hold the yard tonight

It grew past the point of cutting down (Cutting down)

Drop

Down now

The crown is down now

Verse 2

Level stump

Sawdust pale as flour

The robin's nest flew off by dark

The swing rope coiled under the fence

I carved two letters here at ten

I read them at ring eleven now

Pre-Chorus

Look up

Look hard

Watch the crown take one more ring

On me

On you

On everything that climbed it as a kid

Chorus

Cut it down (Cut it down)

Forty summers to reach the sky

Gone in a Tuesday morning now

The sap still runs in the sawdust there

The roots still hold the yard tonight

It grew past the point of cutting down (Cutting down)

Drop

Down now

The crown is down now

Bridge

Torn bark

Torn rope

Torn crown

He wanted space (He wanted space)

I wanted time (The tree wanted rain)

We wanted shade

One call could have stalled the saw

The phone lay charging on the sill

I watched it through the kitchen glass

And let the top go first

Chorus

Cut it down (Cut it down)

Forty summers to reach the sky

Gone in a Tuesday morning now

The sap still runs in the sawdust there

The roots still hold the yard tonight

It grew past the point of cutting down (Cutting down)

Drop

Cutting down

Point of no growing back

Outro

Sap

Still in the rings

A green shoot through the sawdust now (Green through the sawdust)

Grow

Slow grow

Another forty years, maybe