Roots Not Chains

Snow Took The Road
Snow Took The Names From Stone
But Beside The Fire
We Spoke Them Back To Life
Each Winter Laid Its Silence On The Land
It Filled The Ruts And Hid The Boundary Stones
The Paths Once Worn By Those Before My Birth
Disappeared Beneath A World Of White
Yet By The Hearth, Their Names Returned In Flame
In Songs, In Stories
In The Scarred Old Table
In Earth That Fed Our Blood From Year To Year
The Dead Were Gone
But Never Absent There
Before The Valley Gave Me To The Road
It Taught Me Every Name Beneath My Own
Under The Snow, The Old Road Lies
Under My Skin, Its Echo Survives
The Years May Weather Each Spoken Name
Still, I Remember Where I Came
Roots Do Not Bind The Feet That Roam
They Hold Me Steady Against The Cold
No Matter How Far This Child May Go