Odes to Joy

Tarot · Track 73 · middle

Ten of Pentacles

RWS: an old man in a patterned robe seated with two white dogs at the gate of a prosperous house, a couple and a child under the archway beyond, ten pentacles arranged over the whole scene. Keywords: legacy, inheritance, the entire household in one shot, wealth understood as continuity.

No audio yet — generation pending.

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
I got the heavy robe on, the one with the crescent moons
Woven in thick thread to block the afternoon
Sitting out by the stone arch, watching the shadows stretch
Two white hounds at my knee, too old now to fetch
They know my hands, they lean against the bone
It takes a long, quiet life to finally buy the home.

[Chorus]
Ten copper markers hanging in the draft
Hovering like a bloodline, a quiet photograph
The paper was signed in '78, the mortar's setting fast
You build a roof to hold the rain, you build a floor to last
And when it’s all secure, you sit outside the gate
And let the plaster settle with the weight.

[Verse 2]
Through the archway, my son is talking low
Looking at the courtyard, nowhere they need to go
The little one is pulling at her dress
I hear the voices, but I don't interrupt the breath

They’ve got the run of the kitchen, the run of the hall
They think they're the ones who hung the mirrors on the wall.

[Chorus]
Ten copper markers hanging in the draft
Hovering like a bloodline, a quiet photograph
The paper was signed in '78, the mortar's setting fast
You build a roof to hold the rain, you build a floor to last
And when it’s all secure, you sit outside the gate
And let the timber settle with the weight.

[Bridge]
Every coin in the air was a season in the dirt
Every decimal a ledger and an oil-stained work
I put the iron in the ground so they could walk around free
Tracing the edge of the property, ignoring the tree
It doesn't need me to hold the pillars up
I'm just the old man drinking from the cup.

[Outro]
Under the grapevines, watching the street.
The white dogs sleep.
The copper catches the sun on the stone.
The mortgage is dead. You leave it alone.
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