Soon we'll count the rings inside all one by one   Wondering if I could point to the place   Where we first slept 'neath it's branches   Oh oh      Leaves once rose like an ocean we swam when we were boys   This one was all things a mansion a fortress   And as we matured it was shade for   The secrets that we passed along      But this oak has grown old wither-wrung   It threatens to fall   Better for us if the axe splits the trunk they say      On your tip toes a ten-penny nail jutting high in the bark   Relics of tree houses built and torn down   Places we hid after dark oh   Oh oh      Please please lend some belief to this hard wasted ground   Where little green soldiers and indians fought   This is the burial mound of   My youth and my innocence      This oak has grown old wither-wrung   It threatens to fall   Better for us if the axe splits the trunk they say      Oh oh oh      Better for us   Better for us   Better for us   Better for us yeah   Better for us   Better for us      Oh oh oh