Kindred Lives — Echoes of Thoreau VI

[Verse 1] I could not throw the cutting away A branch still speaking under bark So I placed it in a glass of water And waited for a root in the dark Some hear only wood and silence I hear tomorrow quietly breathe The smallest lives reveal their secrets To those who choose to see [Chorus] We belong to one another More than we will ever know Root and feather Wing and weather All returning to the same slow flow [Verse 2] A crow would watch the pathway Long before I came in sight Eating only half the offering Then carrying the rest in flight When she arrived beside him The hidden story became clear Love had built a home from breadcrumbs Just beyond my field of view [Chorus] We belong to one another More than we will ever know Root and feather Wing and weather All returning to the same slow flow [Verse 3] Behind a door of iron winters A tiny fly would share my day Waiting for the date stone after breakfast Before slowly drifting on its way Weeks passed through the silent seasons Snow against the window frame Others would have seen an insect I had come to know a name Some mornings it would circle gently As if checking I was there In a place designed for absence Life still entered through the air [Chorus] We belong to one another More than we will ever know Root and feather Wing and weather All returning to the same slow flow [Verse 4] In the park a wounded sapling Leans beneath a careless hand Letters written Warnings spoken Still ignored by those who stand Offices with polished windows Responsibilities neatly filed Yet a tree can die unnoticed Like an unprotected child [Verse 5] And I have seen abandoned animals Bought for comfort Left for haste Fashioned briefly into family Then discarded without grace Old dogs carrying several owners Cats unsure of whom to trust Learning once again that promises Can disappear like dust [Bridge] Law may sleep behind a signature Conscience seldom rests at all The lake remembers every footprint Even those too small to call [Final Chorus] We belong to one another Crow and sapling Dog and fly Nothing living walks completely Under an indifferent sky We are only temporary keepers Of a world we do not own And kindness is the quiet language By which every soul comes home [Outro] The crow still waits The dogs still run The branch became a tree And the morning has begun