Schools are named for teachers, streets are named for trees
Girls are named for songs that boys sing on their knees
I named you for some letters scratched in trees
I named you for a song that begs for tender mercies
I named you for the water on my kissing little tongue
I named you for the wind in my crying little lungs
I named you for the life's work of honeybees
I named you for a song that begs for tender mercies
I named you for the number on a little piece of paper
I named you for a wish, I named you for the words I would whisper
Half-weeping, when I could not sleep:
"Help me keep her, help me keep her"
Schools are named for teachers, streets are named for trees
Girls are named for songs that cry, "Baby please"
I named you for a warm wash of memories
I named you for a song that begs, and begs, and begs...