God Bless Ohio -Sun Kil Moon

Written by ：Mark Kozelek

There you were a little kid in the yard

I was a friend and a brother

There's an old picture of us playing cards

And at night we threw corn at houses

It was meant for feeding hogs

Later in life I was playing jimmy fallon

You were getting chased by police through cornfields

And mauled by canine dogs

And when I go back and visit

It's like a ghost town

We travel around and around and around

Past the perpetually vacant sexton's house

Sexton's house

Past the abandoned molly stark hospital

And I think about

The old mansfield prison where shawshank redemption was filmed

And I think about

The alcoholic's anonymous guys

I knew in my teens who had been in and out

Past the old steel mill

I think about my grandpa

And that horrible nursing home

And the ugly tattoo on his sagging dying arm

I said f**k that dad

Whatever that is I'm never ever ever going to get one

My dad is one of two left of his nine siblings

And when he's gone

I'm gonna lay down in my bed and I'm never gonna wanna get out again

I'm never gonna get out again

I'm gonna be strong when I can

Cause if my little brother goes before me

Don't want to swim out into the sea and never come back

God bless ohio

God bless every man

Woman and child

God bless every bag of bones six feet under the snow

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

Just saw the news on my television in New York

Pike county ohio massacre

If it ain't families getting shot then it's one thing or the other

Guy letting his pet lions loose in the street

And putting a gun in his mouth

Young girls held as slaves in a basement by a guy

Until a neighbor ratted him out

Craigslist killers luring people by offering them work on a farm

Killed and buried their bodies out by belden village mall

Stole their cars and credit cards

God bless ohio

God bless every man

Woman and child

God bless every bag of bones six feet under the snow

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

Oh as sadness lingers

And the rain clouds above

Well sadness lingers and the lightning storms

Rain floods

Oh as sadness lingers

And the graffiti underneath the bridge

Well sadness lingers and the old dilapidated barns

And the doors coming off their hinges

And in the empty downtown parking lots

And the lonely alleyways

And the foreclosed homes that once had kiddie pools in the yards

And cars parked in the driveway

Oh but the beautiful things from ohio

My mother my mother my mother my mother

And my walks along the path of the tuscarawas street

Of the tuscarawas street

The beautiful children of my sister

And the blue herons gliding across the pond

Blue herons gliding across the pond

The black squirrels nibbling on acorns

The fireflies flickering on the summer lawn

On the summer lawn

Domino's pizza brings me back to when I was younger

When I was younger when I was younger

When I was younger when I was younger

These kids I hear outside my window

I was one of them I was one of them

I was one of them I was one of them

Now I'm the old man in the chair

Deep in thought in the living room

I'm that old man now and I'm grateful that I got this far

And that I've become him

And when I go back we drive around

We drive around we drive around we drive around we drive around

We drive around

The old supermarket we used to go hide behind

Is closed down

Is closed down

I was raised on groceries my mom brought home from their spring summer fall winter

Spring summer fall winter

Velveeta cheese and wonder bread and chocolate milk

And salisbury steak TV dinners

She squirreled away a few bucks along the way because she loved you and me

She loved you and me

So she could make sure we had a few gifts each year under the

Christmas tree

At the risk of pissing my dad off very very very badly

She socked that money away from those grocery store trips without him knowing

For you and me

What saved me from the dark clouds hanging over ohio

What's chasing the dream baby

Who would have known

That the pursuit of love and music would have even bought me a home

Or'd have take me to tokyo to tel aviv

To athens to reykjav ík and rome

There is healing in writing poems

There is healing in psychotherapy

There is healing in taking walks along the beach

But never underestimate the healing of music baby

Some songs are funny and some are sad

Some are short some are long

There is nothing as healing and powerful

As the power of song

As the power of song

As the power of song

As the power of song

As the power of song

I was walking along the hudson looking at

The New York skyline on my break from the studio in hoboken

Every pay phone I saw

I checked to see which ones worked and which ones were broken

And in my head there was a melody going

Oh

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless ohio

God bless o

God bless o

God bless oh