Rope Burns

Some ropes save you.
Some ropes scar you.
Same hand.
Same line.
Rope burns on my hand
Names burned in my head
I held who I could
And I carry the rest
Snow took the road
Smoke took the sky
Some men came home
Some only came by
I don't say much
That don't mean clean
I got rooms
in my mind
Where the old ghosts lean
One had a laugh
One had a kid
One said,
keep moving
So that's what I did
Boots in a line
Breath in the dark
North Star gone
But it left a mark
You don't forget
What the cold makes plain
Love is a rope
And loyalty stains
Pull once
Pull twice
Hold fast
Through ice
Hands tear
Hearts shake
Still the rope
Doesn't break
Rope burns on my hand
Names burned in my head
I held who I could
And I carry the rest
I don't let go
I don't drift wide
Some people leave
But they stay tied
Rope burns on my hand
Blood under the thread
I held who I could
And I carry the rest
I've carried grown men
With fear in their teeth
Carried young boys
Who forgot how to breathe
Carried bad news
Through a mother's door
Carried silence
From a nameless war
Carried my anger
Like a round
in the rain
Kept it unloaded
Kept it off chain
That's not weakness
That's a code with weight
Any fool can fire
It takes strength to wait
Metronome stepper
Pain in time
One foot forward
One hand on mine
If I start sinking
If the black thought grows
I touch that scar
And I follow the rope
Pull once
Pull twice
Hold fast
Through ice
Hands tear
Hearts shake
Still the rope
Doesn't break
Rope burns on my hand
Names burned in my head
I held who I could
And I carry the rest
I don't let go
I don't drift wide
Some people leave
But they stay tied
Rope burns on my hand
Blood under the thread
I held who I could
And I carry the rest
I used to think surviving
meant walking out breathing.
Now I know better.
Surviving is remembering
without becoming a grave.
It is holding the line
without hanging yourself from it.
It is loving the dead
without joining them early.
It is keeping your hand
on the rope.
Even when the rope burns.
Hold fast
Hold fast
Pain talks
Don't answer back
Hold fast
Hold fast
Line tight
Don't fade to black
Hold fast
Hold fast
Names gone
Not detached
Hold fast
Hold fast
Bring them home
On your back
Rope burns on my hand
Names burned in my head
I held who I could
And I carry the rest
I don't let go
I don't drift wide
Some people leave
But they stay tied
Rope burns on my hand
Blood under the thread
I held who I could
And I carry the rest
Same rope.
Same scars.
Same names.
Still tied.