Belated Promise Ring

F C G C F C G

[Verse]
          F           C           
Sunday morning, my Rebecca 
  G           C
sleeping in with me again
          F                 C  
There's a kid outside the church 
             G
kicking a can
           F             C        
When the cedar branches twist she 
            G             C
turns her collar to the wind
       F                  C   
The weather can close the world 
              G
within its hand
         F             C         
And my mother says Rebecca is as 
G                 C
stubborn as they come
           F               C      
They both call to me with words I 
       G
never knew
           F              C       
There's a bug inside the thimble, 
           G               C
there's a band-aid on her thumb
       F           C             G
And a pony in the river turning blue
             F                C   
They say, "Time may give you more 
               G               
than your poor bones could ever 
  C
take"
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     F               C          
My Rebecca says she never wants a 
   G
boy
        F              C          
To be barefoot on the driveway as 
      G             C
they wave and ride away
         F              C         
And to run inside and curse the 
    G
open door

[Verse]
         F         C         G   
I once gave to my Rebecca a 
           C
belated promise ring
        F               C         
And she sold it to the waitress on
  G
 a train
       F               C       
I may find her by the phone book 
        G             C
with a fashion magazine
        F                 C       
She may kiss me when her 
         G
girlfriends leave again
           F                  C   
They say, "Time may give you more 
                 G             
than your poor bones could ever 
 C
take"
        F               C         
I think I could never love another
   G
 girl
      F           C               
To be free atop a tree stump and 
  G              C
to look the other way
          F                 
While she shines my mother's 
 C         G
imitation pearls

[Verse]
        F         C                
Sunday evening my Rebecca's lost a 
G              C
book she never read
        F            C             
And the moon already fell into the 
G
sea
         F             C          
Saw the statues of our fathers in 
    G                 C
the courthouse flower bed
         F                 
Now they blend with all the 
 C                  G
lightning-tattered trees
          F                  C    
They say, "Time may give you more 
               G               
than your poor bones could ever 
 C
take"
   F                C             
My Rebecca said she knew I'd want 
  G
a boy
  F             C           
A dollar for my boardwalk red 
  G                 C
balloon, to float away
          F             C         
She would earn a pocketful to buy 
    G
me more