Odes to Joy

This Much Counts as One · Track 4 · middle

Hand

Hand — 4 in — still used for horses. Volume: I. BODY. ANGLE: The animal is measured in palms. The palm belongs to the person who decided to stay. Sing the person or animal inside the unit, never the definition.

No audio yet — generation pending.

Lyrics

[Intro]
Easy now. Stand in the straw.

[Verse 1]
You are shifting your weight in the cold morning light
Breathing pale clouds in the aisle
I tuck my thumb tight to the line of my knuckle
So my palm sits flush against your roan
Starting low at the joint, moving up through the heat
Stacking the skin and the bone
You flinch at the chill of my fingers
But I hold them steady and flat

[Chorus]
This is how we pull you from the wild
This is how we write you in the book
A ladder made of flesh against your shoulder
So the buyers know exactly where to look
I am making you a number they can trade
But it is my palm on your coat
Keeping you safe

[Verse 2]
Some dead king decided the width of this rule
But tonight it is only my grip
Smelling of cedar and sweet feed and leather
Counting the climb to your mane

My wrists ache from hauling the water
But they memorize the slope of your chest
My body knows the distance in the dark now
Without a single number to suggest

[Chorus]
This is how we pull you from the wild
This is how we write you in the book
A ladder made of flesh against your shoulder
So the buyers know exactly where to look
I am making you a number they can trade
But it is my palm on your coat
Keeping you safe

[Bridge]
When I reach the high ridge of your withers
You will finally be tall enough to sell
The ledger demands an exactness
That a human touch was never meant to tell
But they do not bring a stick of cold iron
They trust the flat of my hand to be true

[Outro]
One more over the other
Stand still

You are beautiful, and you are leaving
Just one more left to go
And my hand falls away from your shoulder
A little bit too slow
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