Ashes of the Longhouse

Intro

Grate's still warm from a fire forty winters gone

Doorframe holds the black where the varnish couldn't hold on

Verse

Ten years old when the longhouse folded into flame

Counted twelve rafters falling, only nine came down with names

Elder pulled me by the collar through a wall of orange smoke

Said the roof was never yours, only the promise that you spoke

Mother's shawl caught embers, turned to lace before my eyes

Learned that night grief don't announce itself, it just arrives

Morning came up gray, the snow was salted black with soot

Walked the frame barefoot, learned the shape of loss by foot

Found the hearth stone standing when the rest had turned to dust

Figured if a stone could hold that heat, then so could us

Started stacking new beams before the ash had time to cool

Village called me reckless, called the boy who broke the rule

But I'd seen how fast a roof forgets the ones it kept

Wasn't building shelter, I was building something that wept

By sixteen I could read a fire like a second tongue

Knew which flame was hungry and which one was just young

Chorus

Ashes of the longhouse settle soft as snow

Every beam that fell here taught me what to hold

Nothing that we build stays,