Your Gift's a Thief (demo)

from Transitory [demo album] by Leslie Hudson

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about

One of 20 R-word song-a-weeks, this one for "Rot"

Inspired by a chapter of Peter Wohlleben's book "The Hidden Life of Trees" where the forester encountered a stump of a tree dead 500 years. The inner heartwood had long since rotted away, and yet the outer ring remained. Beneath the surface he found green where he cut and realized the stump was still being fed by the surrounding trees and fungi.

The author characterized this as friendship, but I imagined first a spiteful mother saying "I gave you life so you will keep me alive forever!" to her ancient offspring. Then instead I heard a grandmother tree whisper softly "let me go and let me die. Stand alone and do not try to keep me here against my will, for I have had my fill."

lyrics

Smooth as the waxwing
Bold as the crow
Into the woods where the wind can’t blow
Dressing in riddles
Pulling loose threads
Root to heart and heart to head

Walking a path I have walked till it’s worn
Reading the page till it’s faded and torn
Tilting the glass till I’ve had the last drop
And now I wish to stop

Although my heart has turned to earth
And no one living saw my birth
My skin’s preserved and kept from rot
With sugar – as though time forgot
That I’ve been dead 500 years
Yet still I live on sugared tears

They will not let me go so I
Beneath the moss can never die

Wood and stone
Are not confused
Except where I have been infused
Surviving on the gifts I’m sent
A monument to good intent
Where I am trapped and cannot grow
I cannot move; I cannot go

Passive vessel
Filled with grief
Not my own
Your gift’s a thief
Your gift's a thief

Let me rot and let me die
Stand alone and do not try
To keep me here against my will
For I have had my fill

credits

from Transitory [demo album], releases June 20, 2024

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about

Leslie Hudson Stratford, Ontario

Leslie Hudson is a Canadian singer songwriter and pianist. Their albums range from storytelling styles to bluesy bar rock to dialed-up, full-band homages to pop culture. With lyrical piano skills and a voice that cuts through the crowd, their songs dive deep into archetype and folklore, modernizing ancient voices & shining a spotlight on the shadowy paths we walk through life, myth and media. ... more

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