September Grass

Well, the sun's not so hot in the sky today
And you know I can see summertime slipping on away
A few more geese are gone, a few more leaves turning red
But the grass is as soft as a feather in a featherbed

So I'll be king and you'll be queen
Our kingdom's gonna be this little patch of green

Won't you lie down here right now
In this September grass
Won't you lie down with me now
September grass

Oh the memory is like the sweetest pain
Yeah, I kissed the girl at a football game
I can still smell the sweat and the grass stains
We walked home together. I was never the same.

But that was a long time ago
And where is she now? I don't know

Won't you lie down here right now
In this September grass
Won't you lie down with me now
September grass

Oh, September grass is the sweetest kind
It goes down easy like apple wine
Hope you don't mind if I pour you some
Made that much sweeter by the winter to come

Do you see those ants dancing on a blade of grass?
Do you know what I know? That's you and me, baby
We're so small and the world's so vast
We found each other down in the grass

Won't you lie down with me right here
September grass
Won't you lie down with me now
In this September grass

Lie down
Lie down
Lie down
Lie down
(repeat)

Won't you lie down here right now
In this September grass
Won't you lie down here now
In this September grass

This is maybe my favorite James Taylor song of all time, off of the October Road album, which is definitely my favorite JT album.

Becky and I went to Shreveport to see him in concert when he was touring with that album. It was the most wonderful time of our lives. We were both established in Nacogdoches - she had just finished her first semester at SFA and while I wasn't a gigantic fan of where I was working, I was at least looking forward to a tax season to really show what I could do. The concert was our anniversary gift to each other.

As we drove home we talked about all sorts of stuff. That is was time to potty-train Katie, and help her lose her pacifier. Becky thought she was two months away from finishing her dissertation, and we decided it was time to have another baby.

Of course, it never happened. Less than a month later, our lives were turned upside down by the cancer diagnosis. But for that weekend for sure, and really the two years in particular we spent in Nacogdoches, I was king and she was queen of a little patch of green. We did drink of that apple wine, though we had no idea of the winter that was to come. But my memory of it anyway is all the sweeter for the winter that lay ahead.