One thread

I came walkin' in from the desert
On a cold October morn
And the clock in the tower spun backward
In that dusty prairie town
The weather vane on the steeple
Was a unicorn covered in rust
It’s been pointing north now
A hundred years (pretty much)

Now it spun a wild squeal
And followed me up the street
And I heard it say

I’ll give ya one thread for your blanket
Two threads for your soul

Ageless as the hills from where she came,
And nobody had ever heard her name
She’d watched the locomotives roll
Between piles of buffalo bones
It was an iron skull all the same
She lived in a house of rusty rail spikes
And sat in front of the door
Rocking wild in her bamboo chair

Something slithered in her eyes
Gaze tracking my every stride
She stretched out her hand

And gave me one thread for my blanket
Two threads for my soul

A man with silver studs was standing
Like Jesus Christ reborn
But there was change in his pockets
He wouldn’t give to no one
He never thought past his own opinions
He had no conscience to be torn
The heels on those cowboy boots
Well they weren’t even worn

He wished I’d just wither
Under his righteous regard
And he pointed a finger

Taking one thread from my blanket
Two threads from my soul

Now the sky looks big in this parta the world
And the sun it walks a slow slow mile
The wind it’s just God’s long breath out
And you’ll know how that never ends
But it’s talkin a blue streak all the while
When the devil under ground rises up
That weather vane spins 'round south
And the unicorn, well, he just smiles

While the twister ties one on
The devil will beguile
And with teeth’s he’s filed

Steals one thread from my blanket
Two threads from my soul

So now that town’s behind me a dusty state of mind
And this road’s the sweetest river
Through promises made of sand
There’s an angel with her thumb stuck out
Her skirt a white sail in the wind
I shivered before her warning smile
I even thought about taking a stand
Instead I just walked on past

And when our shadows crossed
God just nodded
And so tippin my hat

I gave her one thread from my blanket
Two threads from my soul

In this world and every other it’s worth remembering
What it is to stay warm
On a cold October morning
It’s only in your mind
That clocks run backward
To summers forlorn & gone
Try to recall it was this cold
On the day you were born

And she was there
Her breath so soft
Givin ya this:

One thread from her blanket
Two threads from her soul


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Words by Steven Erikson
Music by Kit Soden