A Place for Family Souls

Verse 1

In the spring of your youth

I left you breathing dust and promises

Traded the warmth of your skin

For a gamble at truth

Broke my back under blood-red suns

I bled into the cold gray stone

Blindly carving out a place

Leaving you alone

Verse 2

Then the wire hummed with thunder

A fierce blade driven deep through my soul

You were carrying a child

While I chased my empty arrogance

Another man sowed in my field

He gathered what I failed to keep

And all the gold I bled to win

Turned to ashes at my feet

Verse 3

1700 kilometers

Through the mountains and the shadows

With a newborn pressed to your breast

You built the courage on my doorstep

Offering your shattered grace

And I stood like thunder ready to strike

I turned to pieces as

I could not scream in your face

Verse 4

The door slammed shut like a coffin lid

Echo tearing through my bones

The cruelest thing my hand could do

Leaving you out with child alone

Winter bled into my marrow

Silence cut me like a knife

Watching your shadow walk away

The bravest spirit in this life

Chorus

Oh, 1700 kilometers

You moved just to reach my door

Across the crags, across the dark

To my blind eyes that did not see more

I promised you the heavens

But I shut out the sky

Now the thunder is my breath

And I'll mourn until I die

Verse 5

You believed our love was stronger

Than the venom in the blood

You stood unbowed against the deluge

You pulled us from the rising flood

So I torched my idle riches

Tore the steel out of my chest

I built a sanctuary out of earth

To give your spirit rest

Verse 6

Four walls of wood, brick and mortar

Green earth beneath the sun

A deep blue water pool for summers

Built for a family to grow as one

Poured my soul into the foundations

Thought I'd wash away the sin

Foolish hands trying to mend

What my own absence broke within

Bridge

There's a hearth for your heart

There's a cradle for her breath

There is room for our laughter to rise up

To conquer death

I'd hold her as my flesh

Carve my life to make you whole

Scream I'm remorseful to the mountains

'Til it reaches your sweet soul

Verse 7

In the low light of the tavern

Where the heavy spirits flow

I swore before your bloodline

That I'd pack my rig and go

"I am heading north to claim them

Bring 'em home where they belong

We will mend the broken threads

We'll make the silence into song"

Verse 8

But their eyes sank to the shadows

And their voices dropped like lead

They said, "Lay down your reins, dear brother

Please leave the ghost inside her head

She has walked through Hell's own furnace

Drowned in fire, rain, and stone

If you ever truly loved her

Please turn around and walk alone"

Chorus

Oh, 1700 kilometers

And the machine refuses to start

The track is drowned in ashes

And the frost has claimed my heart

Do I ride into the tempest

Or drop my head and let you be?

I bought a place for family souls

And it's a tomb of ghost and me

Outro

If love is in the riding

I will ride into the dark

If love is in the staying

Then I'll freeze without a spark

May the winds carry my weeping

Past the mountains and the sea

I never stopped loving you

Not for a breath, not eternity

You see...