A Wall When the Wall Is Needed (Protective)

Lyrics

The air is cold enough to break.
Don't speak.

They have dogs out tonight.
I can smell the wet fur on the wind from here.
I can hear the snap of a branch under a heavy boot, maybe two miles back.
You are trembling beside me.
You smell of fear and the river mud we just crossed.

Your breath is a white flag in the dark.
Your eyes are asking questions I can't answer now.
You want to go back.
I feel it in the way you pull at my sleeve.
But back is a story already written.
We are writing a new one.
In the dark.
With our feet.

I am the wall when the wall is needed.
I am the door that's barred.
I am the hand across your mouth when you forget to be quiet.
I am the cold steel in your back, urging you forward.
This is that kind of love.

Your baby whimpers in the sling.
A small sound that could kill us all.
I have a little bottle, a drop of sleep on my finger.
A mercy that feels like a sin.
But my job is not to feel.
My job is to get you through the night.

There will be a morning.
There will be a place where your name is your own.
I am compelled to face the danger, but I do not have to fear it.
My fear is a luxury I sold for your safety.
I am not a person anymore.
I am a direction.
I am North.

I am the wall when the wall is needed.
I am the door that's barred.
I am the hand across your mouth when you forget to be quiet.
I am the cold steel in your back, urging you forward.
This is that kind of love.

Just a few more miles.
Take my hand.
The stars are our map.
Don't speak.
The wall is holding.