The paper sits upon the step, the messenger already gone And lillian sits next to it, and looks across the coming dawn The type is bold enough to read, for eyes so tired and set with time And lillian cannot believe, the photograph and bold headline She leaves the step and lights the stove She heats the kettle cracks the eggs And from the porch the paper blows It lifts and weaves and floats away And lillian, she smoothes her hair, she sits to rest her aching feet And up the old and oaken stairs, martha stirs and leaves a dream She reaches out across the bed, finds the sheets are tucked and cold She calls aloud for lillian, her heart it beats and strains and slows And lillian, she climbs the stairs, She hears her martha's ragged breath She lies beside her calms her fear, It's alright darling you can rest And long they lay there side by side The breath of two becomes the one And down the street the photo flies, of martha and of lillian And now the town it slowly wakes, Unrolls the paper, Sits to read the news it travels cross the state Of hearts that struggle to be free And from the front in love and tears Lillian and martha wave The courthouse after fifty years On their long awaited wedding day Beyond the step the day begins, the heat it rises from the road And down the stair comes lillian, a promise kept, a band of gold