Mary Chapin Carpenter – Hand On My Back lyrics

I move through the world like an arrow that flies
Slicing the air as I’m mapping the skies
And way deep down the echoes remain
Memories sounding like rattling chains

But lately I think I am coming around
I’m liking the feel of my feet on the ground
And last night I stopped dead in these tracks
Recalling your hand on the small of my back

The slightest brush but as powerful too
As an electrical storm that’s moving on through
Then is gone as fast as it came, leaving nothing,
Not even the rain

When I was younger how I took my time
Folly and wisdom form points on a line
From one to another with space in between
For the lessons you learn and the dreams that you dream

But tell me what happens when dreams don’t come true
How you overcome some things until they overtake you
Why you never got chosen, why you never felt claimed
By some passion or person that is never explained

I come on quiet but I’m fierce as a lion
Life will take us apart but we never stop trying
To proceed as if whole and intact
Like I felt with your hand on my back

Nothing can catch me when I’m moving fast
Even those rattling chains of the past
So I’ll go like that arrow but with nowhere to land
I am losing velocity, height and command

We all hit the ground, we all fall from the sky
We burn up, we break up, we wreck and we cry
But we’re bound up together by sight and by pact
That begins with the touch of your hand on my back