You wipe rosin on cracked horsehair
Maple back drinks the heavy air
Sawdust settles on your boot heel
Screen door slaps its rusted steel
F-holes drink the noon light slow
Overgrown grass swallows toe
Chisels sleep in oil-stained rags
Violin counts dragging tags
Old fiddle counts each heavy step
You play the hymn nobody kept
Altar breath in splintered wood
Midnight walks where you once stood
Bow hair frays on C-string groan
Porch light flickers, dies alone
Harmony you used to sing
Rots beneath the garage spring
Old fiddle counts each heavy step
You play the hymn nobody kept
Altar breath in splintered wood
Midnight walks where you once stood
No choir rises, no organ swells
Just brass muted in cracked hotel
Your alto voice cracks low and rough
Counting time on broken stuff
Rosin dust on calloused thumb
You hum the verse that never comes
Workshop window frames your face
Ghost notes drift through broken lace
Footsteps fade past rusted gate
Violin leans against the crate
Last chord hangs in humid dark
You wear the song like a faded mark
Old fiddle counts each heavy step
You play the hymn nobody kept
Altar breath in splintered wood
Midnight walks where you once stood
Rosin counts what hands forgot
You're the hymn the workshop caught
Bow lifts slow on final breath
Silence grows in hollow depth