By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The song answers that wonder is missed in real time: no first flower or swallow is seen, only the swarm, burial, cheating, and a late claim that Texas is home.
Where the earlier lyric watched a flower in spring, this one begins from belatedness and damaged perception. The swallow is never singular here; it arrives already as swarm, which makes amazement feel immediately overwhelmed. Burial, cheating, and the dismissal of wonder turn homeland into something grimly settled rather than lovingly chosen.
Compressed 'The song' companion: never saw a flower when it was spring, barrowed in the ground now, killing and cheating first, no power in wonder; 'Texas now / Is all of our home.'