Bound for a Land

Intro

(Fingerpicked electric guitar, low ambient pad — ocean stillness)

Verse 1 — Bound Son, male tenor

I am the one who built the ship

I am the one tied to the mast of the ship I built

My brothers are dancing on the deck

My brothers are forgetting where we are going

I told them to stop

I told them the Lord brought us this far

And they laid their hands on me

And they bound my wrists until the skin broke

Verse 2 — Dancing Brothers, same male tenor, different character

I am the one who danced

I am the one who said let us be free of him

He has bound us in the desert

He has bound us on the water

We will bind him in return

The brass thing stopped working

The brass thing went silent the day we tied him up

But the sea is calm

And the wind is at our back

And we will not let him speak again

Pre-Chorus

(Time signature shifts to 7/8 — storm beginning)

And the sky turned

And the wind turned

And the sea stood up

Chorus — both voices in unison

Bound for a land

We have never seen

Bound for a land

We do not understand

Bound for a land

Bound

Verse 3 — Mother, female alto

I am the mother

I am the mother of the one tied to the mast

I am the mother of the ones who tied him there

And I am watching my children die slowly

On a boat my son built

My husband is sick in the cabin

My husband is so afraid he cannot lift his head

I have buried two countries already

I will not bury my children

On the floor of the sea

Verse 4 — Father, same male tenor, different character, simpler chord progression

I am the father

I am the one who saw the tree

I am the one who said we will go

And now my children are tearing each other apart

On a boat in a storm

My wife is praying

My wife is holding our youngest

And I am old

And I am tired

And I cannot lift my head

I cannot lift my head

Bridge — Storm Peak

(Full kit, distorted guitars, dissonant string clusters, 7/8 collapsing)

For three days

For three days

For three days

The water came over the side

For three days

For three days

For three days

And the one bound did not curse them

And the one bound did not curse them

And the one bound prayed

Pre-Resolution

(All instruments collapse into a single sustained dissonant chord — held for four beats)

Resolution — back to 4/4 C minor

(Storm clears — clean guitar, soft brushed drums, female harmony arrives)

They came to him

They untied his wrists

His wrists were swollen

His wrists were the color of the sea after the storm

He prayed

He did not curse them

He prayed

And the sea went still

Final Chorus — both voices in unison, layered harmonies underneath

(Listeners: "bound for a land, bound for a land")

Bound for a land

We have never seen

Bound for a land

We do not understand

Bound for a land

And we made it

We made it

We made it to land

Outro — male tenor, quiet

The brass thing was working again

By the time we saw the shore

And my brothers would not look at me

And I would not look at them

And my mother held my father

And my father was breathing

And we walked off the boat

Onto a land we had never seen

And we knelt down

And we kissed the ground