Weight of the Longship (Version 6)

Intro

Salt in the grain where the oar handle wore smooth

Captain's name on the prow, mine ain't carved into the wood

Bench number seven, same seat my father sat

Ship don't ask who's rowing, it just asks you row like that

Verse

Sunrise on the fjord and my palms already torn

Split skin healed to leather by the second week I'm born into

Twelve hours pulling, salt water in the cuts

Chief up on the platform counting coin, I'm counting strokes and luck

They say the longship glides but glide is just a lie they tell the shore

It's forty backs in rhythm bleeding through the oarlock's roar

I learned the tide by pain before I learned it by the stars

Learned a man gets remembered by the wounds he wears like scars

Winter crossing, ice on the rail, breath turned to smoke

Man beside me quit at dawn, I took his oar and stroke

Carried double weight through waves that swallowed weaker crews

Came home with the plunder, still my name was never news

Chief got the mead hall, chief got the silver cup

I got the calluses and the sea inside my gut

But the ship don't move without the ones who ain't in the song

That's the debt they never pay and that's the weight I carry on

Chorus

I'm the weight of the longship, the backbone under the hull

Every oar cuts the water while the captain gets the pull

They carved his name on the mast, left mine in the salt

Still I rowed through the storm when the whole crew called a halt

Verse

Different water now, it's the loading dock at four

Same cold in my knuckles, same weight against the floor

Forklift got a name plate, mine's a badge that says "Trainee"

Still I'm moving pallets heavier than what the manual say

Boss man in the office counting numbers on a screen

I'm the one that keeps the whole warehouse running clean

Learned the rhythm of the shift the way my father learned the sea

Learned a check don't pay you back for what the labor takes from me

Third shift, ninth month, my hands don't shake no more

Younger kid beside me quitting, I took over his floor

Carried extra weight again, same story different name

Longship or a loading dock, the ache still feels the same

But I started marking dates now, keeping my own ledger

Every bruise a lesson, every ache made me steadier

They can leave my name off plaques, off prows, off every wall

Long as the weight gets carried, I'm the reason it don't fall

Chorus

I'm the weight of the longship, the backbone under the hull

Every oar cuts the water while the captain gets the pull

They carved his name on the mast, left mine in the salt

Still I rowed through the storm when the whole crew called a halt

Bridge

Funny how the ones that carry never get to steer

Til one day the rope wears thin and the captain disappears

Somebody's gotta take the helm when the storm won't quit

I know the water better, every current, every drift

I ain't chasing his name now, I'm building one of my own

Out of blisters, out of ballast, out of rowing home alone

Outro

Bench number seven, my son's gonna sit there too