Barn Cat

Barn Cat

Screen door hanging crooked in the delta wind

Rust on the mailbox, weeds up to the rim

Old Ford truck sunk halfway in the grass

And twenty half-wild shadows moving fast

Everybody round here calls her Barn Cat

Lives out past the river bend

Half the county thinks she’s crazy

Other half depends on her cats for rats again

Coffee cans lined up along the fence

Smoke from the chimney curling slow and dense

She talks to every stray that comes around

Like they answer when nobody else is around

Chorus

Barn Cat

Queen of the backroad night

Barn Cat

Thirty yellow eyes in the headlights

Barn Cat

Living where the river fog rolls black

Nobody really owns Barn Cat

Watching that old X-Files hantavirus show

Lit a Marlboro before the credits rolled

Said, “Ain’t no way I’m sleeping tonight”

While thirty barn cats scratched at the screen door light

TV glowing blue through the kitchen haze

Ashtray full from another long day

She swears something walks out beyond the creek

And every stray cat knows before she speaks

Chorus

Barn Cat

Queen of the backroad night

Barn Cat

Thirty yellow eyes in the headlights

Barn Cat

Living where the river fog rolls black

Nobody really owns Barn Cat

Sheriff laughs when he drives on by

Till rats start chewing through the grain supply

Then he pulls up slow at her old dirt lane

Tips his hat and asks for help again

Claw marks running up the porch rail wood

Cat bones buried where the oak tree stood

She says the strays just show up on their own

Like the fields themselves won’t leave her alone

Breakdown

Black cats

Gray cats

One-eyed watching from the barn slats

Long tails

Green eyes

Moving silent underneath the pines

Barn Cat

Barn Cat

One winter night when the cold came hard

Every stray in the county filled her yard

By sunrise not a single one remained

Just little tracks disappearing in the rain

Now kids grow up hearing stories passed around

About a woman and cats out past town

Some swear she’s still there burning cedar bark

With yellow eyes still glowing in the dark

Final Chorus

Barn Cat

Queen of the backroad night

Barn Cat

Thirty yellow eyes in the headlights

Barn Cat

Living where the river fog rolls black

Nobody really owns Barn Cat

Oh no

Nobody owns Barn Cat