Songbook

Yankee Bayonet

By The Decemberists

duet

[Verse]
Cadd9                    Am
Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
  Cadd9             Am
A sweetheart left behind
Cadd9                      Am
Far from the hills and the sea-swal'ed Carolinas
Cadd9                     Am
That's where my true love lies

Cadd9 Am Cadd9 Am

[Verse]
Cadd9                Am
Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
       Cadd9               Am
Sings upon the birch-bough high
    Cadd9                          Am
But you are in the ground with the voles and the weevils
      Cadd9                   Am
All a'chew 'pon your bones so dry

Cadd9 Am Cadd9 Am
Cadd9 Am Cadd9 Am

[Chorus]
A           Cmaj7
But when the sun breaks
A           C          G
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
A             Cmaj7
Then will you make a grave
A              F
For I will be home then
          Gsus4
I will be home then
          F
I will be home then
          Gsus4
I will be home then
Then

Cadd9 Am Cadd9 Am

[Verse]
     Cadd9                Am
When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
       Cadd9          Am
Made a seam to hem me in
Cadd9                      Am
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
       Cadd9                    Am
Got my heart right pierced by a pin

Cadd9 Am Cadd9 Am

[Verse]
    Cadd9                   Am
But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas
        Cadd9                         Am
All the bellies and the bones and the bile
    Cadd9                    Am
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
       Cadd9              Am
And my own belly big with child

Cadd9 Am Cadd9 Am

[Chorus]
A           Cmaj7
But when the sun breaks
A           C          G
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
A             Cmaj7
Then will you make a grave
A             F
For I will be home then
          Gsus4
I will be home then
          F
I will be home then
          Gsus4
I will be home then

[Bridge]
F                                   G
And stems and bones and stone walls too
G
Could keep me from you
F                             E
This skein of skin is all too few
G
To keep me from you

Cadd9 Am Cadd9 Am

[Verse]
    Cadd9                  Am
But oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
           Cadd9              Am
Though our skin may not touch skin
Cadd9                Am
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
       Cadd9                     Am
I will come on the breath of the wind

Cadd9 Am Cadd9 Am
Cadd9 Am Cadd9 Am