From the recording The Cricket's Song
What to say about this song? I wrote it in 2008, when my mother was deep into Alzheimer's. She lived for 13 years after her Alzheimer's diagnosis. It was a very long goodbye.
One night, I was listening to a cricket just behind the wall of our bedroom. He was singing so loudly and persistently, it seemed as if he were singing his heart out. When I was a little girl, there were many crickets in our back yard, and even on the back porch, under the trees in the summer. I remembered better times, sitting out on the porch with my mother, surrounded by cricket song.
Like the cricket in my song, I do wonder why everything must die and when I sing my mother's story, I feel like I might cry.
Lyrics
Cricket sings behind the wall
And he chirps his ancient story
It's the one his mother sang
And my mother heard before me
It's a story without end
In a voice that's very small
It's a song that transcends time
There's a thread that binds us all
Cricket sing behind the wall
I'll listen all night long
There's a chill now in the air
And the leaves are almost gone
Tell me, do you ever wonder
Why everything must die
When you sing your mother's story
Do you feel like you might cry
Cricket teach your children well
To sing behind the wall
And I'll teach my children well
To listen for their call
Repeat first two graphs
copyright 2008 Martha Maria, marthamariamusic@comcast.net