New Song: Keris' Guitar

[the_gwenzilliad]

The year after keristor was killed, I purchased a guitar that belonged to him at the Filk Fund auction. It took me two and a half years to write this song.

Still not OK.

Lyrics below the cut tag



Keris' Guitar

V
You can weave a story out of sorrow
You can craft a perfect poem out of rain
But the tragedy that shocks you in the moment
Leaves a mocking, angry silence that remains
Inside your veins.

So we send a cautious tendril back through time
We brush across cloudy November, and we pause
When it's still too close to remember, lost for rhyme
We poke the embers with our fingers; he was lost
Lost, he was.

CHORUS
I put my fingers to the strings
I bridge a chord I haven't seen in twenty years
On Keris' guitar
On Keris' guitar
The melody reflects the myths that grow in stars
On Keris' guitar
On Keris' guitar
My stumbling hands can trace a sadness I can't barre
As I bend my broken fingers
Over Keris' guitar

V
Somewhere there's a different ending; somewhere
There's a different pair of hands upon these strings
If I find that place, I promise I will take you
In a craft that gives a smoother ride than wings
Our journey sings.

There is no great message in this song
There's only poetry that stops
And on that cloudy day a verse was interrupted
A fate was sealed, a stomach drop --
A life: full stop.

CHORUS

BRIDGE
Just six strings, not half as many as the smallest harp I own
I never thought I'd feel so empty
So benighted so alone
Still I ask family to sing: send voices high, let spirits lift
As if together we could sing him back-- I could give back this gift
And not bend my broken fingers
Over Keris' guitar

CHORUS