The Century's Blink
A hero who lives so long that she only realizes after her friends are gone how much those short years with them meant. She reminds me to pay attention to the small moments with people while they're still here.
The math is simple, the variables are set
A ten-year quest is a debt already met
To you, it’s a lifetime, a saga in the sun
To me, it’s a morning before the work is done
I’ve got a trunk full of scrolls and a staff made of wood
Understanding the brief is rarely understood
It’s a long walk back to the start of the end
Retracing the footsteps of a departed friend
Collecting the magic that others call small
Like flowers in winter or a script on the wall
I’m measuring moments in the dust of the years
Beyond the horizon of human frontiers
I’ll stop for a decade to learn a new trick
To clean up a statue or make the garden thick
I don’t mind the mimics or the teeth in the chest
Efficiency is relative when you’re better than the rest
The hero is stone now, frozen in the square
But I still remember the way he combed his hair
You say forever like it’s a heavy weight
I say tomorrow and I’m usually late
But the sunset looks different when you’ve seen it a million times
And the silence is louder than the victory chimes
It’s a long walk back to the start of the end
Retracing the footsteps of a departed friend
Collecting the magic that others call small
Like flowers in winter or a script on the wall
I’m measuring moments in the dust of the years
Beyond the horizon of human frontiers
Just a few more years to see where this leads
Planting the garden, pulling the weeds
I’ll see you again when the era is new
I’ve got plenty of time, do you