From the recording As You Believed

Lyrics

Mother may suspect small hayloft sinTo Father, not a whisper where we’ve been.With a boy you never would forgetYou rolled a corn silk cigarette –That confession, they’re awaiting yet.But as blameless babes might end in purgatoryYou’d find another ending to that storyIn the end you know there’s goodness, then there’s gloryAnd you believed, and went in firstAnd you believed, and saw them nursedAnd you believed, not saving faceAnd rose to tend a stranger’s grief And spread the balm of your belief Your saving grace,As you believed.
I was second youngest for a whileNow I can’t remember mother’s smile.For the soul who would have numbered sevenIs testing all her faith in heaven,A dark weight your small light cannot leaven.As you listened for the comforts left unspokenRejecting as you must an awkward tokenA promise first deferred and finally brokenStill you believed, but mustn’t touchStill you believed, but not too muchStill you believed she did her bestUntil it seemed that all her grief Could settle into your beliefAnd finally rest,As you believed.
Doctor I don’t need you anymoreI’ve met the man you must have cured me for.With a name no harder to pronounceThat I never once heard you denounceAll your silent treatments might announceThat your loyalty so stubborn once excited Could will away the doubts our faults ignited Our fragility unguessed at while we slightedAll you believed, but we did notWhile you believed, we only thoughtWell you believed, and treacherous,For now it seems that in our griefWe’ve found the depths of your belief in us,As you believed, you believed, you believed.