Long Time Girl Gone By - Rodney Crowell, Mary Karr, Emmylou Harris

If I could live my life again awake

Think of all the chances I could take

I’d love with all abandon just the same

'Cause that’s the game

If I could cross a bridge from now to then

Open up my chest and let it in

I wouldn’t fight so hard against the pain

I’d let it rain

Long time girl gone by

I couldn’t take my loves the way they came

My eyes projected each one with a stain

And though they gave me more than I could spend

I wouldn’t bend

Hiding in my bridal veil of smoke

I sipped my lies until I thought I’d choke

Once there was nothing left that I could steal

I had to yield

Long time girl gone by

The seconds whisper circles off the clock

The ships go sailing past and never dock

The sea rears up, collapses and withdraws

The constellations wheel and never pause

The wind winds through the small bones in my ear

I start to hear

The trees look just as pretty when they’re bare

Black branches hieroglyphic in the air

The leaves they left are rotted into lace

It’s all grace

Long time girl gone by

Long time girl gone by