Whippoorwill Caroline Herring Hey there mama come and sit on my windowsill I'll be your Saint Francis I'll be your whippoorwill we'll sing together through the rolling glass as your lover builds a nest that's built to last these our the mornings of our past I will watch your babies born not from a branch or a white magnolia bloom but a farmhouse second-floor corner room with pieces old and new borrowed and blue Daddy watched his father play an archtop guitar him and Uncle Glint on the porch of a grocery store well I don't know, but I've been told he sang "You get a line and I'll get a pole sugarbabe" Hey there cousin won't you play dress up today brother, let's slide down the stairs where mama threw her wedding bouquet mama, did you line them up and watch them fall with a 22" waist and deep South drawl I bet you charmed them all Hey there sister won't you come sleep in my bed we'll pull up all the blankets tight round our heads please turn out the bedside table light when I've closed my eyes and I'm sleeping tight don't want to stay up tonight and we will wake up with the sun and birds chirping from magnolia blooms in our farmhouse second-floor corner room with pieces old and new borrowed and blue