Casena's Song

Casena’s Song by Payson Lyon

I still hear that melody rockin’ on Casena’s knee
That’s the way she cradled me off to sleep
She was black as brushy coal with no bottom to her soul
That’s one rock that’s never rolled that I still keep

Now she’d come most every day
For the little my folks could pay
Mama said she had a way to quiet me
I couldn’t talk but I could hear her voice rising sweet and clear
Above all hurt beyond all fear so gracefully

It was a sound that comes from deep inside
Where all blood’s one and the truth don’t hide
Where the heart can ache and still beat strong
I just can’t shake Casena’s song

Casena lived across a gravel road
From a poor white farmer with kids half growed
What they thought of her they never showed. Jim Crow was king
Like white sand dropping through a black iron sieve
A simple nod was all they’d give
In all those years she’d watched them live and still she’d sing

With a sound that comes from deep inside
Where all blood’s one and the truth don’t hide
Where a heart can ache and still come back strong
I just can’t shake Casena’s song

In Clinton town in ’58, torn apart from the blinding hate
From men who shout then hide and wait when evening falls
Now Casena lived within the sound
Of bombs that tore the schoolhouse down
While midnight riders go through town making calls

That poor white neighbor and his sons
Climbed her porch steps swinging guns
Casena saw nowhere to run as evening fell
They said we been watchin’ most every day
‘Spect you-ins got trouble on the way
If you don’t mind, tonight we’ll stay
And sit a spell and give ‘em hell

There’s a sound that comes from deep inside
Where all blood’s one and the truth don’t hide
Where the heart can ache and still be strong
I just can’t shake Casena’s song

Now a lot has changed between Black and White
It ain’t always clear now who’s wrong or right
But when my road runs rough and lays out long
I fall back to Casena’s song

And a sound that comes from deep inside
Where all blood’s one and the truth don’t hide
Where the heart can ache and still beat strong
I just can’t shake Casena’s song

Where the heart can ache and still come back strong
Each day I wake to to Casena’s song