Symbols lingering in the sutures Where I've stitched our lives together Your body figures in my future With a boa's tender tether I've got a love to shelter us Like a flesh and bone umbrella A holy home Hewn in stone Sanctified and hallowed Well, you know that deed Will be deemed undue When they pry my cold dead hands off you Nimble fingers stroll your velvet cheeks A tear appears and travels Well, I've scoped the scape And I will not speak While brittle ties unravel Well, I got a love like a carnal cope A sanguine shrine, a boney tope But I see the ciphers In your eyes Like hungry hempen collars Well, you'll know you're free You'll know we're through When they pry my cold dead hands off you My hands Can't set you free O, they cleave to thee O, they fall to atrophy My hands Have two holes that sing When I clench the rings Where I wore the rood of love No agency, no measure Could lessen love's great torture But with my hands upon this treasure Death itself becomes conjecture