What I Was Afraid Of · Track 32 · middle

War hammer

War hammer — Late-medieval anti-armor weapon. 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

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
I am a short, blunt argument.
Four iron langets riveted down the ash,
Three point five pounds of hardened head.
You didn't draw me to threaten or to flash.
You drew me when the man was trapped
Inside his custom Milanese shell.
I was the clapper. I rang the bell.

[Chorus]
But what if you missed the plate?
What if the armor slips, and I only find the breath?
I was built for the friction of wealth against weight,
To engineer a mechanical death.
If I strike a bare throat, I am only a stone.
I was terrified of finding just bone.

[Verse 2]
A sword has a silver tongue, it parts and it sings.
I only know how to stutter and crush.
Once the hand commits to my swing,
Your shoulder is just a passenger in the rush.
The back-spike is angled at sixty degrees,
To catch on a visor and drop him to his knees.
A beautiful puzzle of iron and sweat.
I answered the hardest question you set.

[Bridge]
But there were days in the mud when the knights were all down,
And the men with no metal came running in brown.
And I fell on a shoulder that offered no spark,
Just a wet, heavy yielding in the dark.
No ringing resistance, no glorious dent.
Just a butcher's mallet, entirely misspent.

[Chorus]
What if you missed the plate?
What if the armor slips, and I only find the breath?
I was built for the friction of wealth against weight,
To engineer a mechanical death.
If I strike a bare chest, I am only a stone.
I was terrified of finding just bone.

[Outro]
Now I rest on a velvet rack.
Looking at a room full of skin.
Walking around in cotton and silk.
Please do not pick me up.
There is no steel here to break.
Just a sickening give.