November comes again, indiscriminate northwest wind
Then December and I remember, words so tough and words so tender
Can't take back words never spoken, a promise never made is a promise broken
You and I were too young to know, where the wild water flows
And where the dust from your boot heels goes, when that northwest wind blows it all away
But 14 soon turns 41 and there's more left to do than has been done
There's wild water in the bucket, when you kick it it rolls away
Wild water dies in the river unless rain sets it free
There's love that you're born with there is love you'll never find
Sometimes your love grows most in those you left behind
As young boys do we fought like fools with fists and words, sometimes cruel
But mostly we just got along, a brothers love like a river runs deep and strong
But rivers split and stones tumble, trees fall in and cutbanks crumble away
There's wild water in the bucket, when you kick it it rolls away
Wild water dies in the river unless rain sets it free
There's love that you're born with there is love you'll never find
Sometimes your love grows most in those you left behind
God damn it's getting cold, January makes young men old
Out where the memories freeze like ice on the branches of dead old trees
The trees that young boys climb are the trees that grown men leave behind too soon
Still can't drive that county road, still get sad when the snow starts to blow
Bouncin' off the headlight beams, when you're wild the world is mean sometimes
You can try not to cry like your mammas boy, but if you don't let go the pain can destroy a man
There's wild water in the bucket, when you kick it it rolls away
Wild water dies in the river unless rain sets it free
There's love that you're born with there is love you'll never find
Sometimes your love grows most in those you left behind
Can't stand February, a desperate thaw like tears on the prairie
They say lonely men die alone, where the wild seed's sown
There's ice on the river waitin' for the sun, to make it wild and let itrun again
You're ice on the river waitin' for the sun, to make you wild and let you run again