Gungnir

Lyrics

You leave me leaning on the high seat
While you watch the worlds spin down.
Just a walking staff for a weary god
Without his cloak or crown.

They carved exactly forty-two strokes of law
Down my iron socket, deep and clean.
I am the oath that cannot be broken.
I am the straight line in between.
Your mind decides the target, and before your fingers part,
I have already mapped the distance to the center of the heart.
I am an extension of your shoulder, of your eye.

But I have a fear of perfect things.
I am terrified of my own true flight.
I have never missed a mark you gave me,
Not in the mud, not in the night.
What happens when your wisdom breaks?
What happens when you aim me in the dark?
I will not be able to save you from your mistake.
I will tear right through the mark.

I have killed the heroes you decided had to fall.
I have pinned the kings against the heavy wooden wall.
I don't judge the meat I enter, I just follow out the thread.
But I watch you pacing the floorboards overhead.
You are growing older, and the shadows are so long.

Other spears can catch a sudden gust of wind.
Other weapons shatter on a shield, or graze the skin.
They get to fail. They get to offer grace.
I am locked by the dwarf-work to the geometry of space.
If you point me at your brother, if you point me at your son...

I have a fear of perfect things.
I am terrified of my own true flight.
I have never missed a mark you gave me,
Not in the mud, not in the night.
What happens when your wisdom breaks?
What happens when you aim me in the dark?
I will not be able to save you from your mistake.
I will tear right through the mark.

I am leaning on the high seat.
Your shadow turns to me.
I would miss this time.
I really would.
If I only could.