Caroline Herring - Paper Gown Lyrics

Small town stars shine bright for a day

The moon lights up a watery grave

Woods move in the nighttime breeze

That lifts from the lake through the trees

On the night that defined my name

Fantasy or monster, you say

Watched my boys ride the incline down

All for a paper gown



Long ago I used to be

A little girl on my daddy’s knee

Dreams lie like diamond rings

Babies and pretty things



I watched my car sink silently

My lover’s sweatshirt wrapped around me

On a black man I blamed the crime

With moans and screams and cries

Then I waited for him to call

My ready-made family gone after all

While the world mourned an alibi

My hopes began to die

Long ago I used to be

A little girl on my daddy’s knee

Dreams lie like diamond rings

Babies and pretty things

Day by day

All the promises faded away

No one but me

Controls my destiny



The sheriff sat me down to pray

At the First Baptist Church on the ninth day

“Susan, make your conscience clean”

“Sheriff, I’ve done a terrible thing”

I confessed that, for love’s sake,

I drowned my children in John D. Long Lake

They’re with Jesus, looking down

At me in this paper gown



Long ago I used to be

A little girl on my daddy’s knee

Dreams lie like diamond rings

Babies and pretty things

Long ago I used to be

A little girl with dreams I believed

Dreams lie like diamond rings

Babies and pretty things