Ferryman to the Black Horizon (version 2)

Verse

Iron light cuts the waterline

Ferryman stands by his black boat

Steel wire humming into the night

Nobody leaves this side of the coast

Smoke from the engine, salt on my skin

Nothing behind us but the weight we carry within

The iron horizon is where the current ends

I row through the dark until I break free again

Every passenger pays a piece of what they've been

The crown is heavy, the wind cuts it clean

Beneath me, the tide does not bend

I know this water like I know my own name

It's just water till you learn to feel its frame

So hold tight now and look across the bay

Let nothing on shore draw you back in that way

The light comes up gold on the opposite shore

I don't need it, we have been before

This is what freedom tastes like — ash and salt —

I've carried kings, I've carried weight

I've watched the world burn out of every gate

But nothing waits at the other side

Just a black water, empty and wide

A current that pulls everything apart

And a crown in my hand, heavy with the start

Of a life no longer defined by what's been lost

This is how you learn to trust the cost

To let go of every thing on which you stand

So push off slowly from this frozen land

Nothing left here but the echo of our past

I was bound to a shore that was never meant to last

But I row now and the water holds its breath

In case I don't return — in case there is no path

If this ferry sinks beneath the dark and cold

Then at least we all sink together, told

There's nothing behind us anymore but sea

And on the horizon a future yet to be

This weight has been the only reason we've stayed

Now it's time to learn what else it means to survive

So open your hands and let go of everything you've saved

Because every crown that rises from the deep

Is something heavier than the chains we used to keep

And every man who lets his own horizon sink

Is one more soul the tide gets back — and keeps