josh ritter
letter from omaha
Well I can't sleep with all these hand-me-downs Battered up chests and faded dreams Every new life seems to spin away Like sand escaping through the seams  Send me a letter from Omaha Said a needle or thread could mend the tears But tonight the cotton fields, they Smell like calico And the color of your hair  Stars stand against the lonely blue Like pin-pricks made by midnight hands They tried to sew you a pure white dress Got tied up in the misdeeds and demands  Cotton burned all brown and wasted Like an innocence fell to disrepair But tonight the ashes, they Smell like calico And the color of your hair  If I could have my one and only wish I'd sew your hair all to the lining of my shirt I'd stand in the noon day clean and golden Not the color of the dry land dirt  Send me a letter from Omaha Said a needle or thread could mend the tears But tonight the sugarcane, it Smells like calico And the color of your hair