Velvet Countryside

VELVET COUNTRYSIDE
(by Silvio Vinci)

Your blue shirt on the washing line
Still holds a little of the sun.
I leave my suitcase by the stairs;
You smile as if I’d never gone.
The kettle sings against the rain,
A moth goes turning round the light.
The things I thought I’d have to say
Can wait until another night.

There’s nothing here I have to prove,
No part of me I have to hide.

Velvet countryside,
Let the evening take its time.
Let the road go on without me,
Let it wind, let it wind.
There is room enough for silence
In the velvet countryside.

The moon lies broken in the brook,
You stir the water with your shoe.
It comes apart, then shines again,
As if that’s what we’re meant to do.
A late train moves beyond the trees,
Its windows burning red and gold.
I used to think it called my name;
Tonight your hand is all I hold.

There’s nothing here I have to prove,
No part of me I have to hide.

Velvet countryside,
Let the evening take its time.
Let the road go on without me,
Let it wind, let it wind.
There is room enough for silence
In the velvet countryside.

I thought that freedom had to move—
A passing town, an open sky.
But I can leave the window wide
And let the whole world wander by.

Velvet countryside,
Let the evening take its time.
Let the road go on without me,
Let it wind, let it wind.
There is room enough for silence
In the velvet countryside.

Let it wind, let it wind,
Past the fields and through the pines.
Let it wind, let it wind…
Velvet countryside.