Sable Crown, Bare Feet (version 2)

Intro

Coal dust settled soft like snow that never melts

Basket balanced steady, a load nobody else felt

Bare feet on gravel before the roosters woke

Called the rag her crown before the crown was a joke

Verse

She was up before the church bell, tying cloth around her head

Twist the rag into a ring, called it her crown instead

Filled the basket with the coal she picked up off the rail line

Six miles to the market square, counted every mile in time

Feet grew hard like leather, cracked but never bled through

Said the road don't owe you comfort, only what you push it to

Sold the coal for pennies, kept one penny for the church

Left the rest to feed us five, said hunger was her search

Men would watch her passing, never offered up a ride

Said a woman with a crown don't need to walk beside no pride

Winter turned her breath to smoke, summer turned her back to salt

Never missed a market day, never once would call it fault

I was seven, walked beside her, watched her balance never shift

Asked her how she carried it, she said it's not the weight, it's the gift

Said the load become the throne once you learn to hold it right

That's the only kind of royal that survived past the night

Chorus

Sable crown, bare feet, that's the walk that set us free

Every mile she paid