The Bird that kept our Names

[Verse 1] High above the amber valley Where the turning heavens sleep I repaired the words of strangers Pulled their voices from the deep In a drawer of broken star maps Wrapped in cloth and copper thread Lay a bird of hollow crystal With a message from the dead When the final beam passed through it Your forgotten voice returned “Before the last bell leaves the tower This house must again be burned” [Pre-Chorus] Fifteen years beneath my silence Fifteen winters without proof Then your shadow crossed the rafters And the past came through the roof [Chorus] Oh, the bird that kept our names Held them trembling in the flame Every word I thought I understood Turned its face and changed I was hunting for a traitor I was calling out your blame But the bird that kept our names Was carrying my shame [Verse 2] I followed marks across the star charts Found your footprints in the clay Found the furnace doors left open Before the bells could end the day There beneath the old foundations You were lifting jars of blue I raised the light against your shoulders And demanded what was true You said, “I never came to harm them I came back because I knew What our father sealed beneath us Would ignite when fire came through” [Pre-Chorus] Still I heard the broken sentence Still I saw our mother fall Memory had built a doorway But fear had bricked the wall [Chorus] Oh, the bird that kept our names Held them trembling in the flame Every word I thought I understood Turned its face and changed I was hunting for a traitor I was calling out your blame But the bird that kept our names Was carrying my shame [Bridge] Then the first light crossed the crystal And the missing words rang clear: “Burn away what waits beneath it Or we lose them all this year” I saw a child beside the furnace With the bright bird in her hand I saw you pull me through the doorway While she chose where she would stand You wore the guilt that should have found me You let exile take your name So a child could keep on breathing Without waking in the flame [Final Chorus] Oh, the bird that kept our names Never came to place the blame It carried every act of mercy Time could not erase You were never my betrayer You were shelter, you were grace And the bird that kept our names Had remembered every face [Outro] At the rising of the valley I told everyone who came Then I placed the bird between us And gave you back your name