Varnish and Vows

[Intro]
[Verse]
Outside the drifts are piling high
Cedar dust begins to fly
My old hands know every crack
To bring the music back
A century of spruce and pine
Waiting for a steady line
[Pre-Chorus]
I reach inside the hollow dark
Past the bridge and maker's mark
There’s a secret tucked away
From a long-forgotten day
[Chorus]
It’s just wood and silver wire
Holding ghosts beside the fire
Love notes written in the ink
Of everything they used to think
Hand to hand and heart to heart
The song is just the smallest part
[Verse]
A yellowed scrap from twenty-four
“Meet me by the valley floor”
Torn and frayed around the edge
A simple, quiet, lovers' pledge
The glue is dry, the varnish thin
But the warmth is still within
[Hook]
Oh, the grain of grace
In this quiet place
[Bridge]
Then I find a second note
Tucked beneath a dusty coat
Forty years have slipped between
The different shades of forest green
“I'll wait for you until the spring”
It’s such a heavy, holy thing
[Verse]
My chisel finds the rightful groove
Watching how the shadows move
I’m just a ghost who fixes time
Polishing a simple rhyme
The mountain wind begins to blow
Beneath the heavy blanket snow
I fold the papers back inside
Where the private prayers reside
[Chorus]
It’s just wood and silver wire
Holding ghosts beside the fire
Love notes written in the ink
Of everything they used to think
Hand to hand and heart to heart
The song is just the smallest part
[Post-Chorus]
The smallest part
Deep in the heart
Of the wood
It is understood
[Outro]