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Ellis Paul

Clarity

Do you remember Rose McGuire
Her hair was red as fire
A child of the Carolinas
She was a blue eyed streak of wild
But she fell for the smile of a soldier boy
who was running from the stars and stripes
He laid her down in a clover field
and took her breath with a hurricane's might
She lay tremblin' watching the stars
criss cross the night

(chorus)
Clarity
Clarity
Lord, I need your
charity
Won't you sing me
a sweet old song
your voice won't lead me wrong
when you sing of truth
the truth will lift the haze
and the song will see me through
to better days

When I was born she was sixteen
and every steeple
in the three church town
was ringing with shame
people whispered like rain
of the baby but no wedding gown

So climb aboard, the highway leads
to somewhere nobody knows your name
you plant each step like it was a seed
and make peace with what you cannot change
and she sang me to sleep while the Greyhound
cut the rain
(chorus)

Do you remember
20 years ago in September
in Carolina
does that remind you?
Carolina
Carolina

My name is Annie McGuire
I've come here looking for my father
He's a soldier faded in a photograph
he's just a kid in a uniform
Now I haven't come here to scare you off
with a thousand questions
I need answered
I only know we share the same eyes
and that the truth can be a mighty fine dancer
My mother's gone, and a little clarity
is all I'm after
(chorus)

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