Remembering June – Song Description
“I never asked you to return. I knew you’d come looking one day.” Giving the season itself a voice, rather than the child growing up inside it, changes what this song is actually about in a way I didn’t fully anticipate until it was written. June doesn’t need the grown child to come looking for that old connection again. She’s simply certain it will happen eventually, the way something patient and genuinely unhurried can afford to be certain about a person who hasn’t finished growing into themselves yet. There’s no anxiety in her waiting, none of the urgency a person might bring to the same situation. I wrote this one out twice, under two different titles, because I needed to hear it again before I fully believed I’d caught what I actually meant the first time through — that some of the steadiest presences in our lives aren’t people at all, but recurring seasons, places, rituals, patiently waiting out however long it takes us to circle back and notice they were there the whole time we were busy growing away from them.
Verse One
School bell fading on the breeze
Satchels dropped beneath the trees
Buttons loose and untied lace
Summer shining on each face
Brook that sang through willow shade
Secret dens that children made
Barefoot dreams and skinned young knees
All beginning there with me
Verse Two
I painted evenings soft and slow
Where buttercups and daisies grow
I filled the air with blackbird song
So childhood days could wander long
I warmed the stones beneath your feet
Made every shaded stream complete
You never stopped to ask me why
You were simply nine and I
Verse Three
I held the sunlight in the leaves
And dressed the hedgerows with the bees
I coaxed the swallows high and free
To stitch blue skies above each tree
I cooled the brook through shaded bends
Where little hearts found lifelong friends
You never stopped to wonder why
You were simply nine and I
Chorus
Come and walk these lanes once more
Where little footsteps ran before
You forgot the dates too soon
Yet somehow you remembered June
Long after all the years were gone
Long after childhood wandered on
I never asked you to return
I knew you’d come looking one day
Verse Four
The days were just as warm and bright
I held the evening into light
The blackbird sang as blackbirds do
Through every golden day of June
But something drifted with the breeze
You climbed less often through the trees
The brook still called as clear as day
You smiled then slowly walked away
Verse Five
I filled the roses with their bloom
And wrapped the world in warm perfume
I taught the lark to greet the dawn
And kept the longest evenings on
Yet every year I gently knew
I’d see a little less of you
The fields still danced beneath the sky
But childhood waved a soft goodbye
Verse Six
I crowned the orchards white with bloom
And filled the gardens all with perfume
I held the swallows in the sky
And watched the longest days drift by
I saw you dreaming further on
With wider roads to journey on
I waved although you never knew
My finest days belonged to you
Verse Seven
Each year I came with open hands
To warm the fields and bless the lands
I dressed the trees in living green
Just as I always had been seen
New laughter echoed down the lane
New little hearts would call my name
I spoke of none who’d journeyed on
But held them gently one by one
Verse Eight
The brook still turned the old mill wheel
The moss still dressed the stone with green
The blackbird sang the evening through
As though it still remembered you
Then through the gate you came once more
With slower steps than years before
You looked around and softly smiled
I saw the wonder of that child
Final Verse
You remembered me though time had flown
Long after you forgot the year
I kept your childhood safe with me
I knew you’d find your way back here
The little boy still walked with you
Though life had changed your voice and face
I never asked you to return
I simply kept your special place
Lyrics Michael Forty
Voice Michael Forty