Lyrics

One night an injured creature
was finished off by our dogs
Who ran down to the riverbed
Like a pack of ancient wolves
The moon was small, did not assist
As I flew from our home
To try and offer aid at least
To free the beast from my own

They whipped my legs they whipped my face
The blackberry vines and the Queen Anne's lace
I screamed the names of all my dogs
And when they did not come
I begged to death to hurry

I never saw the creature
I limped home on my bare feet
And you pulled the thorns from sole
While you shook your head at me
And you called me a fool

Do you remember the grey-horned owl
Who tumbled beneath a truck
And I pulled to the side and pulled him to me
And I wept at his beauty and softness
And as you pulled to the side and pulled us to you
We heard another owl calling to him
And though his heart was still as a stone
But the other owl never stopped calling

The road stopped the owl from an evening hunt
A machine, so fast and ugly in front
It never stopped to see what it had done
And I hated it more than I could hate anyone

A beast always knows where it's headed
Because it remembers where it has been
And there's something inside them
That's older than they are
That tells a beast when it's the end.
It tells a beast when it's the end.

Do you remember all of the beasts
That we have herded back to their homes
We stumbled on them constantly
Sometimes together, sometimes alone
Pushing baby goats back through holes
In broken down fence lines
Mending the route of escape
Fixing the problems that we'd find

Through acres of horsetail and fields of aged oaks
And third growth Firs in symmetry
Knocking on doors of empty houses
We've been bringing home the beasts
We're always bringing home the beasts.'

A beast always knows where it's headed
Because it remembers where it has been
And there's something inside them
That's older than they are
That tells a beast when it's the end.
That tells a beast when it's the end.

Through twisted madrone and licorice fern
Our hearts did ache, our hearts did burn
The beasts always knew where to go
From them we needed to learn
Learn from the homing beasts