The Juniper Tree

THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Stepmother smiled and lifted the lid
"Reach in the chest for what I've hid"
The apple gleamed, my brother leaned
The lid came down on what she cleaned
I heard it from the other room
A sound like splitting fruit in bloom
When I came in the chest was closed
And something red dripped down her clothes

[Pre-Chorus]
She tied his head back on with thread
And sat him in his chair like he wasn't dead

[Chorus]
Under the juniper, under the bone
My brother sings but can't come home
A bird now, circling ash and air
Singing what happened to those who care
Marlene remembers, Marlene was there
Marlene has blood beneath her hair

[Verse 2]
She cooked him dark, she cooked him slow
A stew for father, served just so
He ate and said "how rich, how fine"
And asked for more a second time
I gathered every bone I found
From underneath the table ground
Wrapped them in my Sunday silk
And carried them through fields of milk

[Pre-Chorus]
Laid them where the branches spread
A bird rose singing from the dead

[Chorus]
Under the juniper, under the bone
My brother sings but can't come home
A bird now, circling ash and air
Singing what happened to those who care
Marlene remembers, Marlene was there
Marlene has blood beneath her hair

[Bridge]
The bird sang once and won a chain
The bird sang twice and sang her name
The bird sang thrice above her door
And dropped a millstone to the floor
They say that justice found its way
That brother bloomed again that day
But no one asks what Marlene keeps
Behind the eyes that never sleep

[Verse 3]
I washed the pot, I scrubbed the stairs
I combed the stew out of my prayers
My brother laughs and runs outside
As if he never really died
But I still hear the sound the lid made
And I still smell the broth she played
Some bones you carry can't be wrapped
In silk enough to keep them trapped

[Final Chorus]
Under the juniper, under the stone
Marlene still stands there all alone
The bird has sung, the tale is done
The stepmother crushed, the brother won
But Marlene holds the Sunday silk
Still stained with something dark as milk

[Outro]
If you pass a juniper tree
And hear a bird sing bitterly
Know that someone gathered the bones
And carries them still — and carries them home