Sunrise

I was raised on a saddle and a promise half kept,

A hard hand on the reins and a heart that I’d left.

We rode like a prayer that the law couldn’t catch,

Chasing some shining tomorrow through a tear in the patch.

I called it loyalty, called it my kin,

But the circle got smaller every time we rode in.

Money on the horizon, smoke in the rear,

And I started hearing silence louder than fear.

I ain’t a saint, I ain’t the one,

Just a tired old sinner with a setting sun.

Trying to do right with wrong on my tongue,

Hoping the good I’ve done counts when the run is done.

If redemption’s a river, let it run through me,

Wash the blood from my hands, set my spirit free.

The world kept turning, getting clean and cold,

Steel tracks and fine talk buying souls by the load.

And the man with the dream kept feeding the flame,

Till the sparks in his eyes wouldn’t answer my name.

Then something took hold of my breath like a debt,

Like my chest learned a hymn it won’t ever forget.

So I started leaving kindness where I used to leave pain,

Learning you can’t outride the storm in your veins.

I spent my last chances like coins from a fist,

On strangers in the roadside dark, on the folks we’d dismissed.

Maybe a man can change when the end gets close,

When the truth starts talking through a cough and a ghost.

I watched brothers turn to distance, watched love get sold,

And I finally chose peace over dying bold.

I ain’t a saint, I ain’t the sun,

Just a man in the dirt when the day’s begun.

But I tried to be better when it mattered most,

Tried to love in the open, tried to pay my debt in hope.

If my story’s a fire, let it burn out clean,

Leave a little warmth behind where I’ve been.

And when my last breath went quiet in the open air,

I saw the sky turn gold like it answered a prayer.

No more running, no more lies to defend,

Just the sunrise forgiving me, again and again.