When Halley Came to Jackson lyrics

Late one night when the wind was still

Daddy brought the baby to the windowsill

To see a bit of heaven shoot across the sky

The one and only time daddy saw it fly

It came from the east just as bright as a torch

The neighbors had a party on their porch

Daddy rocked the baby, mother said, "amen"

When Halley came to visit in 1910

Now back then Jackson1 was a real small town

And it's not every night a comet comes around

It was almost eighty years since its last time through

So I bet your mother would have said "amen" too

As its tailed stretched out like a stardust streak

The papers wrote about it every day for a week

You wondered where it's going and where it's been

When Halley came to Jackson in 1910

Now daddy told the baby sleeping in his arms

To dream a little dream of a comet's charms

And he made a little wish as she slept so sound

In 1986 that wish came 'round

It came from the east just as bright as a torch

She saw it in the sky from her daddy's porch

As heavenly sent as it was back then

When Halley came to Jackson in 1910

Late one night when the wind was still...

1. Jackson, Mississippi

• Artist:Mary Chapin Carpenter