The Cartographer

from Other Worlds by Summer Russell

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about

Of wings and maps and magic in the tropics of the heart.

lyrics

There was a boy who loved a bird
who lived along the border
Of the bright world he had painted on his wall
Before his eyes, she came alive
her saw her fly
She sang aloud
so strong and proud,
farewell but not goodbye
He made the map, he marked a path
to show the journey true
Fingers tracing tenderly
the four winds as she flew

He alone who knows she fears to spread her wings and go
Across a sea so strange and wide
And so he draws a compass in a corner of the sky
To see her safely to the other side
And she will name an island for him, hidden from the highest tides.

She said my love for you is like a fountain
bursting from the heart
Of some dark forest where no foot will ever tread
He said my love for you lay down between
the lines of every page
Of every atlas you have never read
But when you rest between these latitudes,
then I will bring them all to you
To shade my understanding with your sight
Illuminate my vision with your light

And so the bird who loved the boy
went winging off in wonder
To discover every sacred secret shore
To ride the wind
so wild and then
return again
The roads they spiral far and wide,
but here they all begin
And in his hands she understands
the magic still unseen
And in her mind at last he finds
the legend to his dreams

She alone who sees he longs for other worlds than these
Beyond the boundaries he has lain
And so she flies until her eyes survey the truth of every peak
And every distant plain
And he will build a bower for her, hidden from the driving rain

He said my love for you is like a story
written in a language I have never seen
but always understood
She said my love for you is like the starlight
scattered on the water,
I would gather it and hold it if I could
But when the night is inky black,
my silvered wings will bear it back
across the far horizon to your door
To show you all you've ever dreamed
And more.

credits

from Other Worlds, released September 4, 2020

license

all rights reserved

tags

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