Spearfinger (Lullaby)

Intro: Soft Chant

Sleep low, little ember, the ridge has ears

The hills keep names from a thousand years

The drum and the fiddle both whisper the same

Do not answer voices that borrow your name

Verse 1

Where cedar smoke curls by the cabin stone

And creek water hums in a silver tone

The old ones tell what the young must know

When the laurel bends and the night winds slow

From Cherokee fires to the Highland reed

From woven prayer to a settler’s creed

They passed one warning from hand to hand

Respect the dark and the sleeping land

Chorus

Hush now, child, let the fire burn red

Keep your dreams tucked close to your bed

If kinfolk call from the frost-white pine

Count their footsteps before you cross that line

For some things sing with a borrowed face

Some things hunt where the shadows lace

Sleep low, little ember, do not stray

The mountains remember who walked away

Verse 2: Spearfinger

Spearfinger walks where the stones turn gray

With a grandmother’s voice and a stranger’s way

Her skin rings hard when the cold winds knock

Her hand cuts dark as a mountain rock

She may call like Auntie from down by the spring

She may hum like a mother where the night birds cling

But no warm hearth waits where her soft words bend

Only old hunger dressed as a friend

Final Chorus

Hush now, child, let the fire burn red

Keep your dreams tucked close to your bed

If kinfolk call from the frost-white pine

Count their footsteps before you cross that line

For some things sing with a borrowed face

Some things hunt where the shadows lace

Sleep low, little ember, do not stray

The mountains remember who walked away

Outro

So lay your head where the quilts are warm

And let the pine roof shoulder the storm

Drumbeat, fiddle, and creek all say

Not every voice is meant to obey

Sleep low, little ember, the ridge has ears

The hills keep names from a thousand years

When morning comes with its pale gold thread

Thank the old gods and the old ones dead