Guarded Flame

[Verse 1]
You lit a candle in the hallway
Said
"It’s only one more night"
Your coat still hangs beside the doorway
Like you’ll be back by first daylight
[Chorus]
Guarded flame
In the wind
Hold your ground
’til I see you again
If the road runs rough
And the sky turns grey
Guarded flame
Show my love the way
[Verse 2]
Your muddy boots beneath the table
Map of scars across your hands
You laughed and called yourself a fable
Made of stone and shale and sand
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
If they call you
Go softly
If they break you
Come home
[low vocal register] I will mend what they have stolen
With my arms
With this old song
[Chorus]
[Outro]
[whispered vocals] Guarded flame
Stay
[communal voices] Guarded flame
Stay
[solo whistle carries the last note
Instruments fade]

folk, Slow Irish folk ballad with pipes, fiddle, whistle, bouzouki, and bodhrán. Female alto starts intimate and close to the mic over soft bouzouki and low whistle; verses build gently with fiddle swells and subtle drum pulse. Chorus blooms into full communal sing-along, layered harmonies, wide reverb on pipes. Final coda thins back out, voices in unison and a lone whistle carrying the last phrase into silence., irish folk, slow, ballad