They found him lying on the floor a flute beside his hand His eyes were wet his breathing slow and no one there could understand Twenty minutes he'd been gone but something in his face had changed He looked like a man who'd buried everyone and couldn't say their names He'd lived inside a dying world they'd written him a life They gave him children gave him fields they gave him someone else's wife He learned to work the stubborn ground he watched the seasons turn He held the grandchild on his knee and felt the sky begin to burn Play the flute and they come back play the flute and they are here Every note a room he lived in every breath a stolen year Was it mercy was it cruelty to fill a man with all that love And wake him on a starship floor with just a wooden flute to hold The crew said welcome back captain and he nodded like he knew But somewhere underneath the uniform the other life was showing through He'd captained ships through burning stars he'd held the line when empires fell But nothing he had ever done had wrecked him quite this well Play the flute and they come back play the flute and they are here Every note a room he lived in every breath a stolen year Was it mercy was it cruelty to fill a man with all that love And wake him on a starship floor with just a wooden flute to hold They wanted to be remembered that was all they had to give So they poured a dying planet into one good man and let him live He is the vessel he is the archive he is the last of what they were And when he plays you swear you smell the garden and the dust and her Play the flute and they come back play the flute and they are here Every note a door that opens every silence full of years It was mercy and it was cruelty to fill a man with all that love And leave him in the stars alone with just a wooden flute to hold A wooden flute to hold A wooden flute to hold
