The Old Woman Lyrics

I was a-riding, there in the forest

When I came upon a house

There in the window, was an old woman

She looked at me and seemed to say

Come in, mister, lay down your pistol

Tie up your horse, and stay the night

Well, it was storming, and I was so tired

Just till the morning I could sleep

So she opened the door for me, smiled and she poured some tea

Put down your heavy burdens here, she said

It's been so long, I live alone

I've been waiting for you dear

Broken faces, haggard places

Lonely riders in the night

Thank you, woman, for your kindness

For what your knotted hands have done

She told me stories, of the lives and the glories

Of the men and the women she had known

And asked me to understand, laughed as she touched my hand

Cold as a rising ocean tide

Oh, where does the time go?

Here like a passing train

Gone like the winter and the rain

Broken faces, haggard places

Lonely riders in the night

Thank you, woman, for your kindness

For what your knotted hands have done

Then morning came, and the light on her face

Showed fifty years had gone, and her age was erased

The lines from her wrinkles had fallen like ribbons

And everything untied, and all things undone

I looked in her eyes at the moon and the sun

Oh, I must be dreaming