Lyrics
[Intro]
[Verse 1]
Once this was a field of flowers,
white and yellow, soft with rain.
Then two great lords grew hungry for glory,
and eight hundred ninety-one men were slain.
The good earth drank them down to the marrow,
the blossoms blackened where they lay,
and I came walking through the quiet after,
and I have never gone away.
[Pre-Chorus]
Hush now, hush, little fallen ones,
you do not have to leave.
[Chorus]
I am the keeper of the storehouse,
I gather the small and the weak.
Let the proud ones pass through the gate of the dead,
but the frail ones — the frail ones I keep.
Sleep is a door I will hold for you,
closed against the cold;
come back, come back at the end of the day —
my garden is never alone.
[Verse 2]
The mighty go on where I cannot follow,
their souls are too heavy to hold.
But the foot-soldier, the frightened, the lowly,
I cradle them out of the cold.
Red cords at my robes and a hundred pale faces,
a lantern for every name;
I bind them in red like a careful gardener,
and call them all home again.
[Pre-Chorus]
Hush now, hush, you are mine to mind,
you do not have to grieve.
[Chorus]
I am the keeper of the storehouse,
I gather the small and the weak.
Let the proud ones pass through the gate of the dead,
but the frail ones — the frail ones I keep.
Sleep is a door I will hold for you,
closed against the cold;
come back, come back at the end of the day —
my garden is never alone.
[Bridge]
They call it mercy, the rest I deny them,
they beg for the long dark road.
But who would tend you, who would remember,
who would carry your small souls home?
The blood ran down to the bamboo water,
the swamp still tastes of the slain —
so stay with me here in the storehouse of evening,
and I will call you back again.
[Final Chorus]
I am the keeper of the storehouse,
I gather the small and the weak.
Let the proud ones pass through the gate of the dead,
but the frail ones — the frail ones I keep.
While I remain, you will never be ended,
while I remain, you are home;
the day will end and I will be waiting —
you will never wander alone.
[Outro]
Sleep, little ones. The end of the day.
Sleep. I will call you again.
