Unclaimed Altars

[Verse 1]
Tiny camp beds
Never learned their names
Just a bunk tag
Numbers where a god should’ve claimed
Paper cup shields
Cardboard swords in their hands
Training in the shadows
Not in the banners of the clans
[Chorus]
Here’s to the demigods who never made sixteen
Faces in the firelight
Gone between the scenes
Never on the cabin walls
Never in the war songs screamed
Unclaimed altars
For the ones we only dreamed
[Verse 2]
She drew constellations
On her bruised
Bare knees
Said
“If someone up there knew me
They would answer me
Please”
He kept a secret notebook
Full of quests he’d lead
Every page a kingdom
He’d never get to see
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
They never got the trident
Never got the owl
No thunder in their footsteps
No laurel
No crown
Just quick
Sharp battles
Behind the armory
A name on a stretcher
A sigh
Then a sheet
[Verse 3]
I light stolen candles
Near the laundry door
Whisper half-made prayers
For the kids not here anymore
If love is just attention
Then remember them with me
Say a quiet “I see you”
To the ones we couldn’t keep
[Chorus]

folk, Emo-folk ballad with female vocals, close-mic’d and fragile at first. Fingerpicked acoustic and soft banjo swells, brushed snare entering on first chorus. Verses stay intimate with hushed harmonies; chorus blooms with layered background vocals and low fiddle drone. Sparse piano doubles key vocal lines in the bridge, final chorus drops to near a cappella then returns with full band for a quiet, aching outro., emo