Billy From the Hills

No one now knows too much about these woods,
 They got lost, they wouldn't know where to go.
 Tribe's been gone a long time, small farmers got blowed out,
 Maybe there ain't even that much left to know.
 You can strip the trees, foul the streams, try to hide in a progressive dream.
 Ease into the comfort that kills.
 Before I do that, I'll grab my pack,
 And disappear with Billy from the hills.
 Blood flows back and back and back and back,
 Like a river from a secret source.
 I feel it wild in me; I pitched my camp
 At the fork where knowledge meets remorse.
 Women sing in me that song from the ancient fire,
 I just open my mouth and what comes out gives me chills.
 I got my song from a secret place,
 I got my face from Billy from the hills.
 A 40-inch barrel on that shotgun,
 Steel traps in a cane pack on his back.
 Eighteen years old, surrounded by the Ozarks,
 Ain't one little bit of that boy that's slack.
 If you're looking for a helping hand,
 He'll give you one, you know he will.
 If you're looking for trouble, huh-uh, turn around,
 You don't want to mess with Billy from the hills.
 Some folks dance cool, all angles and swaying hips,
 Sensual as all get out and in.
 Me, I'm a hick, and I dance like one,
 I just kind of jump around and grin.
 I know a guy, he doesn't dance too much,
 But when he does, he gives everyone a thrill
 You might run away or suck it up and stay,
 When he dances, Billy from the hills.
 There's a lantern lit on a Missouri night,
 A woman writing poems by a stove.
 She knows the fox's whereabouts by knoll, by gulch, by yelp,
 As he runs at night through her mother love.
 Her memory to me is like watercress from a spring-fed stream,
 Fresh and aching as a mockingbird's trill.
 She lives in me; I try to look until
 I can see for her and her boy, Billy from the hills.
 It's a drifting time, people are fascinated by screens,
 No idea what's on the other side.
 We stare at doom like an uptight groom,
 And live our lives like a drunken bride.
 Tonight I feel something on the wind,
 Deep inside where we have to die or kill.
 Something I know I didn't know I knew,
 I learned from Billy from the hills.