River Wash It Clean

Take me to the river (wash it clean)
everything I carry.
Take me to the river (wash it clean)
lay it down and tarry.

I been holding a grudge like a stone in my shoe,
walking crooked from the weight of what I been through.
Old quarrel with my brother, old debt, old shame,
ten years of carrying somebody's blame.
The elder by the shop took one look at me,
said, "Son, that load ain't yours to keep.
Go down where the water cut the mountain through —
what the river do for stone, it can do for you."

So I walked down the gully where the baptists go,
where the water run cold and the healing run slow.
Left my sandals at the water line —
time to leave the old stone behind.

River wash it clean, wash it clean, (wash it)
carry what I carried out to sea. (wash it)
I went down heavy, came up light —
river wash it clean tonight.

Wash it clean. (wash it clean)
Wash it clean. (wash it clean)
I went down heavy, came up light.

The water grab my ankle like an old friend hand,
pull me past the mango root and the sinking sand.
I said my brother's name out loud to the stream
and the current took it gentle like a fading dream.
Come up gasping with the cold and the shock,
sun through the leaves on the baptism rock.
First thing I did with my lungs full of new:
laughed like a child at the sky so blue.

So I walked down the gully where the baptists go,
where the water run cold and the healing run slow.
Left my sandals at the water line —
time to leave the old stone behind.

River wash it clean, wash it clean, (wash it)
carry what I carried out to sea. (wash it)
I went down heavy, came up light —
river wash it clean tonight.

Monday I knocked on my brother's door,
wet hair still dripping on his kitchen floor.
Didn't need a speech, didn't need to explain —
he look at me and put on the kettle again.

(river, river, wash it clean)
What the water do for stone, (deliver)
it can do for flesh and bone.

River wash it clean, wash it clean, (wash it)
carry what I carried out to sea. (wash it)
Ten years heavy, one hour light —
river washed it clean tonight.

Take me to the river (wash it clean)
everything I carry.
I went down heavy, came up light.