I wrote and recorded a full version of this, with a lot of help from some fantastic folks, for a super-secret project that will likely be announced in the next few days. This take is, in fact, the skeleton track for what would become the full recording, which is why there is dead air at the beginning.
This song, in all its neo-Dylan glory, really requires about 87 more drafts on the lyrics, and I like what I'm doing with it, but I've got a long way to go.
The song was inspired by a story I heard a number of years ago, in which a mother of a severely mentally-challenged child who was becoming increasingly violent to himself and to his family, was responding to a repeated barrage of comments from well-meaning strangers, along the lines of "I could never do what you do!" This was incredibly frustrating for her. What choice did she have but to go on, really? Being hailed as a hero came across to her, eventually, as crass, unfeeling, and even patronizing.
I often wonder whether first responders and healthcare workers these days feel a bit of this, as well.
lyrics
Well I met a man on boundary row
with dust caked on his tongue
and the bone and sinew
ground to ash and marrow
and they gave him hero’s ribbons and
the homecome least he sought
And they sang the songs of grace
of vesper sparrows
She met a weary widow with his ghosts
arrayed like wares
on his prayer rug to be sold
to the highest bidder
She asked him when he’d fold
At the point of last confusion
Never crossed his clouded mind
to consider
If the dark fails the light
I’ll send you flares to find me
And if there’s nowhere to fall
we’ll stand and face the storm
And as the last stars of night
give way to dawn’s redemption
We’ll ride it out
What else can we do but ride it out
She says “I’ve given up the luxury
Of fortune-telling dreams
We can only see the shadows
til we’re blinded
and you can pin the tag of hero’s curse
on the ever-fading badge
In the space between despair
and bloody-minded
And in my mind I’ll always be
a thousand miles away
But in my heart I’m standing
as your neighbor
And if I could control the winds
command the tides to pull me
what kind of man would shy from
such a labor?
If the dark fails the light
I’ll send you flares to find me
And if there’s nowhere to fall
we’ll stand and face the storm
And as the last stars of night
give way to dawn’s redemption
We’ll ride it out
What else can we do but ride it out
I’d ask you now to sing no more
the songs of grace and mercy
or shine your torch upon
the fields left fallow
for I can only battle with the
weapons I’ve been given
what choice have I been granted
in this hour?
If the dark fails the light
I’ll send you flares to find me
And if there’s nowhere to fall
we’ll stand and face the storm
And as the last stars of night
give way to dawn’s redemption
We’ll ride it out
What else can we do but ride it out
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