The Valley's Hem

[Verse 1]
The concrete letters of the old Route 50 sign
Spell 'GO N' in the creeping kudzu vine
Came back home the third week of July
The air tastes like rust from the Kernstown quarry nearby
And the cicadas are tuning a low, electric wire
For a hymn that's been wearing down to the choir

[Chorus]
It ain't a flood, it ain't a fire
Just the slow unwinding of a tangled wire
A quiet fraying at the valley's hem
Where you can't mend the pattern, you just watch it end

[Verse 2]
The old pharmacy's a storefront full of dust
A sun-bleached poster peeling from the rust
At dinner, Dad still sets an empty place
A habit with a ghost behind its face
"There's no use fixing what wants to be broke," Mama sighed
Her darning needle resting by her side

[Chorus]
It ain't a flood, it ain't a fire
Just the slow unwinding of a tangled wire
A quiet fraying at the valley's hem
Where you can't mend the pattern, you just watch it end

[Bridge]
This whole town is a quilt left in the rain
Every color bleeding out, every memory stained
I thought I was watching the world fall apart
But it's just the echo of my own broken heart

[Chorus]
It ain't a flood, and it ain't a fire
Just the slow unwinding of a tangled wire
A quiet fraying at the valley's hem
Guess you can't mend the pattern, you just become it then

[Outro]
Unwinding... just unwinding...
At the valley's hem.