First Song

Down it was dusk in Illinois, a small boy
 After an afternoon of carting dung hung
 Hung on a rail fence, a sapped thing
 So weary to crying
 Dark was growing tall
 He began to hear the pond frogs all calling on his ear
 They were calling on his ear
 They were calling on his ear with what seemed their joy
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 Soon the sound was pleasant for a boy
 Listening in the smoky dusk and nightfall of Illinois
 And from the fields two small boys came
 Bearing cornstalk violins
 So they rubbed the cornstalk bows with resins
 And the three just sat there scraping of the joy
 Of the joy, they're scraping of the joy
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 It was now fine music, the frogs and the boys did
 In the towering Illinois twilight
 Make and into dark in spite of a shoulder's ache
 A boy's hunched body loved out of a stalk
 The first song of his happiness and the song woke his heart
 To the darkness and sadness of joy
 Dark was growing tall
 He began to hear the pond frogs all calling on his ear
 They were calling on his ear
 They were calling on his ear with what seemed their joy