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The Lantern That Floated Upstream

A single lantern drifts upstream, carrying only the hush of what was never truly lost.

A lantern that drifts where nothing dares, glowing with the weight of everything unclaimed.

A lantern lit on a lie’s spine, drifting against the current toward nowhere and never lost.


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The Lantern That Floated Upstream - Systems Cowboy
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Lyrics

They lit it with a match
struck on the spine of a lie
Set it adrift on a river
that never asked why

It bobbed past the fishermen
who cast nets of doubt
Past the girl who whispered names
the current couldn’t shout

It floated against the water
like it knew where not to go
Passed every lost intention
and the things we’ll never show

A preacher tried to catch it—
offered prayers in a jar
But the lantern slipped by smirking
like it knew just who we are

Its light was not a brightness
but a shape you couldn’t hold
The glow of all decisions
that were never really bold

It floated through a canyon
where silence keeps the score
Then hovered near a shoreline
that had never been before

They say it found a waterfall
and hovered in its scream
Then vanished in reverse
like a never-happened dream

But sometimes, near the upstream bend
you’ll see a flicker’s trace
Not hope, not warning—
just a light that won’t keep place

And if you try to follow it
remember what it costs—
It’s not a path to something found—
just something never lost


About this song

A lantern adrift against the current, carrying nothing but the weight of what never needed to be found.


Return to: The Almanac of Impossible Folk