The Letter Unsent

I found the paper in a cedar chest

Faded ink from a hand at rest

She wrote my name with a shaking line

A quiet truth

frozen in time (mmmmm)

She said 'My darling,

if you read these words

I hope the wind carries what you heard

I had to leave to keep you safe and whole

It tore a canyon

deep inside my soul'

Oh, the weight of the secrets we keep

To guard the ones we love while they sleep

Now the puzzle is clear in the light

And the anger is fading tonight

Thirty years

of carrying the blame

Of whispered questions and unspoken shame

But in these lines I finally see her face

Wrapped in the quiet

mercy of this place

Oh, the weight of the secrets we keep

To guard the ones we love while they sleep

Now the puzzle is clear in the light

And the anger is fading tonight

I hold the paper close

(ahhhh) I let the anger go