Golden Endgame

[Verse 1]
A Hagi-yaki bowl in a thousand pieces on the sunroom floor
And for the first time, I see the whole damn board
Every sacrifice you made was a castle taking the queen
The most beautiful endgame I have ever seen

[Chorus]
This ain't mending, it's a quiet gambit played for years
Trading bishops for a future, paying rooks with all our tears
And the gold I use to join it makes a map of all the pain
A checkmate in slow motion, whispering your name

[Verse 2]
The smell of lacquer fills the kitchen, sticky on my thumb
Like that August humidity before the hurricane would come
Three years I kept the pieces in a cypress box you made
Learning every broken edge, the silent moves we played

[Bridge]
You said, "Honey, it's just a dish, we can get another one."
You never saw the opening, 'til the final move was done.

[Outro]
It holds water now.
More than it ever did before.