Virgate

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
The clerk with the knotted cord came down from the hill
Pulled it tight from the creek to the ruined mill
He wasn't judging the depth of the topsoil dirt
He was doing the math on the cost of the work
He counted 3 children, he looked at my wife
And decided this much makes 1 single life
It takes 1 man and 2 beasts to drag the wood
And it yields just enough to keep the bargain good

[Chorus]
Not a furrow more, not a pebble less
Just enough yield for the winter's test
They weighed out the muscle, they measured the bone
And drew us a tether of loam and stone
Exactly enough to keep the fire heaving
And never quite enough for leaving

[Verse 2]
My shoulders know the turn before I pull the rein
A quiet slackening at the edge of the grain
Out to the split-ash peg by the hawthorn wood
Where the neighbor's quiet panic meets the mud
You have to admire the coldness of the math
The precise geometry of a narrow path
If they gave us a fraction more, we might get grand
If they gave us less, they'd be working empty land

[Chorus]
Not a furrow more, not a pebble less
Just enough yield for the winter's test
They weighed out the muscle, they measured the bone
And drew us a tether of loam and stone
Exactly enough to keep the fire heaving
And never quite enough for leaving

[Bridge]
We harvest the barley, we gather the rust
Underneath a sky that's heavy with dust
We fill up the wagon till the timber bows
Leaving just enough to honor the vows
They calculated the frost, they calculated the rot
They measured exactly the blood that they bought

[Outro]
To the split-ash peg
To the muddy creek
We turn the beasts around
Right on the line they drew
I bet his ledger is perfectly clean