Morning star / flanged mace

Lyrics

I was never baptized with a holy name.
No king ever knighted a boy with my crest.
I am twenty-four inches of heavy ash wood,
Built to cave in a nobleman's chest.
I don't need a whetstone to keep my pride,
I don't chip or shatter when the weather is cold.
I just sit on the rack and wait to decide
If you have the terrible engine to hold.

Because I am afraid of a trembling wrist.
A blade can get lucky on a glancing blow,
But I demand the gravity of the fist.
I need the total weight of the man to throw.
If you hesitate at the top of the arc,
I am just a useless shadow in the dark.

Your shoulder has to forget I am a thing,
And map me as the heavy anchor of your arm.
There is no clever fencing in my swing,
I was designed entirely to bypass charm.
When the polished silver plate is too thick to cut,
I am the blunt arithmetic of speed and mass.
But I fail completely if your eyes slam shut,
If you flinch when the iron and the helmet pass.

I am afraid of a trembling wrist.
A blade can get lucky on a glancing blow,
But I demand the gravity of the fist.
I need the total weight of the man to throw.
If you hesitate at the top of the arc,
I am just a useless shadow in the dark.

They wrap my grip in a leather thong,
So when I hit the steel, I do not fly free.
I have felt a coward's grip go wrong.
I have bounced off a breastplate uselessly.
Because he didn't mean it.
He didn't want to cave the chest in.

You have to swing me through the floor.
You have to want the crushing sound.
Don't pull me from the armory door
If you won't follow me to the ground.
Twenty-four inches.
Just gravity.
Waiting.