What I Was Afraid Of · Track 24 · middle
Composite recurve bow
Composite recurve bow — Mongol, Turkish, and steppe bows. Register: ancient. This song is sung BY this weapon, in first person, about the one thing IT was afraid of. Find the fear that is true of this specific object, not a generic one.
No audio yet — generation pending.
Lyrics
I am made of things that want to separate. Buffalo horn on the belly, pressing in. Shredded deer tendon stretched across my back. A sliver of maple wood caught beneath the skin. You bent me backward against my own shape, strung me upside down to give me my breath. One hundred and sixty pounds of draw weight, sleeping in the saddlebag, dreaming of the steppe. But watch the sky for me. Watch the heavy clouds roll. I do not fear the iron, I do not fear the pull. I am afraid of the damp. I am terrified of the rain. If the water finds the fish-glue in my seams, I am just dead animal again. When it is dry, we are a single violent line. Your thumb locks the string, your shoulder goes still. The mind drops away before the fingers decide, and I am the sudden extension of your will. But I feel the heavy air turning in the East. I feel the moisture sinking through the felt case. The tension that makes me is a fragile beast, held together by a boiling pot's paste. So watch the sky for me. Watch the heavy clouds roll. I do not fear the iron, I do not fear the pull. I am afraid of the damp. I am terrified of the rain. If the water finds the sturgeon in my seams, I am just dead animal again. Keep me by the fire. Keep me in the tent. Do not let me unspool in the mud. I broke a dozen empires because of how I bend, but water is the only thing that thins my blood. It's starting to fall. I can feel it on the leather. Hold me together. Please, hold me together. I am slipping out of shape. Just sticks and horn in the rain.