INTRO: C

                                      F
You, so fleet and youthful, must have split a thousand apples
      Am                                    F
Oh, I watched you as you steadied first your heart then your breath
C                            F
Venturing out, you scanned a thousand blades of grass
             Am                            F                        Dm
And when you drew your bowstring, it was a swift and cordial death


                    F
As you stood in the wilderness
Dm                              F
Did you feel the silence in the stillness?
         C            Em        G
That was me, with you in the forest
        C                           Em     
For you knew the balances, the balances before us
F                           C   Am     G  
I was guarding Crystal, Crystal Creek


      C                      F
Oh, a tree, it's a record, a home of memories
          Am                                F
And every bird springs from an old master's canvas, full in flight
        C                      F
And the pond I go to, sparkles in a vast estuary
Am                                 F                             Dm
And those men saw nothing, staring drunken through their sites


                            F
The one who spied me out as goods to plunder
  Dm                                F
I had to show the world that he was not a true hunter
         C           Em       
That was me, when he saw me naked
G      C                     Em     
He was interrupting something sacred
F                           C   Am     G  
I was guarding Crystal, Crystal Creek


        C                        F
And the newsmen circled, leaving trails of cigarette butts
        Am          F
Machine-like up the hill to Crystal Creek
 C                            F
“James,” she said, “who would do this thing I've seen today.
  Am                                        F                 Dm
I cannot hold my mic, my hands are shaking, knees are weak.”


                             F
“They found a man and he was wrapped in a deerskin,
Dm                                F
Riddled through with boxes of his friends' ammunition.
         Dm                     G       
Turn the camera off,” she said.
         C          Em       
That was me, oh, my noble animals
         C                                   Em     
You must act with reverence, with reverence, not like cannibals
F                           C   Am     G    C
I was guarding Crystal, Crystal Creek