Odes to Joy

Tarot · Track 70 · middle

Seven of Pentacles

RWS: a young farmer leaning both hands on his hoe, head down, looking at seven pentacles hanging in the leaves of a bush he grew himself. Keywords: patience, the long wait for the return, taking stock, growth that refuses to be hurried.

No audio yet — generation pending.

Lyrics

I’ve got both hands resting heavy on the ash-wood hoe
Let my chin drop down to my chest
The dirt in the treads of these boots is packed hard
And the sun is sliding off to the west
I’m looking at the lushness of this thick green line
Seven heavy shapes weighing down the vine
Yellow and fat in the shadow of the stem
And I can’t do a single thing for them

You can't dig it up just to see if it's catching
You can't yell at a root to rise
You put in the sweat, the hauling, the scratching
And then you just stand by
Yeah, the hardest part of the harvest
Is letting the green thing be
Leaning on the iron, staring at the tree

I hauled forty pounds of bone meal out to this patch
Worked it deep with the heel of my hand
I guarded against the frost, aching in my back
Followed every rule of the land
Now the air is thick and the wind is dead
I count the veins on a leaf, trying to calculate a sign in my head
But the bush just takes what it takes
And it absolutely refuses to keep my time

'Cause you can't dig it up just to see if it's catching
You can't yell at a root to rise
You put in the sweat, the hauling, the scratching
And then you just stand by
Yeah, the hardest part of the harvest
Is letting the green thing be
Leaning on the iron, staring at the tree

My fingers are twitching, they want a task
They want to prune back a branch or spray
It’s a terrible thing when the dirt doesn’t ask
For a drop of your blood today
You just gotta hold your ground
While the world turns terribly slow around

Seven hanging low
Fat and yellow in the shade
Nothing left to do but watch them hold
Watch the daylight fade
Don't touch it
Just wait
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