Paper Lanterns for the Forgotten

I found your name in the back of a drawer

Under dust in the folded up fall

The paper was brittle, the ink had gone pale

But I could still hear you call

So I light a small lantern at dusk

By the shrine where the portraits stay

Let the flame hold the shape of your face

As the shadows come drifting away

I keep the old songs breathing in the walls

I keep your stories from slipping through my hands

One little light for the names nearly lost

One more heart to remember how we are

Grandmother hums in the kitchen steam

Father laughs in a photo strip

Every cracked little story you left behind

Is a bridge that I still walk with

I keep the old songs breathing in the walls

I keep your stories from slipping through my hands

One little light for the names nearly lost

One more heart to remember who we are

If the night gets deep and the echoes thin

I will carry the ember you gave

Through the long, blue hush of the unfinished year

I will guard every word that you saved

I keep the old songs breathing in our walls

I keep your stories from slipping through my hands

Every lantern I lift into the dark

Says you were here and you still remain