Stars Over Carolina

Red cloth catching morning rain

Over pine and porch rail grain

Mama tied it to a cedar post When the creek ran high

in May

Neighbors came with coffee cups And mud still on their Chevrolet

Blue Ridge haze on Sunday clothes Red clay under every nail

That flag kept lifting in the yard Like a hand above the

rail

I used to think it was only colors

Just cloth against the weather

Now I see the names and roads

Holding it together

American flag in North Carolina

Raised where the longleaf leans Not for a fight,

not for a crown For the folks between

American flag in North Carolina Red clay,

white rain, blue sky Every stitch says stay a little longer Every

stripe says try

Down by a tobacco barn

Paint peeling in the sun

Granddad spoke of mill-town shifts And work that got him young

Kids ran barefoot through the yard

June bugs in a jar

Nobody had to say too much We knew who we are

American flag in North Carolina

Raised where the longleaf leans Not for a fight,

not for a crown

For the folks between American flag in North Carolina Red clay,

white rain, blue sky Every stitch says stay a little longer Every

stripe says try

It has seen a hundred arguments And more than one hard year

But on that porch at supper time It made the distance clear

Between what we inherit

And what we choose to heal

American flag in North Carolina Raised where the longleaf leans Not for

a fight, not for a crown

For the folks between American flag in North Carolina

Every stripe says try

Red cloth quiet in the rain Home keeps calling us by name