Lyric

I found it in the drawer

Under lace and cedar dust

Edges soft from patient hands

Creased like a secret trust

Ink was faded river blue

Tiny marks in forest green

A path of lantern dots and bends

Through the places I had seen

It did not point, it asked

Would you follow, would you stay?

And every folded corner

Taught my feet another way

The folded map shows the way

The folded map shows the way

I keep it close when I stray

It leads me home through the trees

The folded map shows the way

The folded map shows the way

Even when night hides the lane

It knows my name by heart

Past the bramble, past the brook

Past the foxglove on the hill

A little bridge of moss and stone

Where the air goes quiet still

I heard a clarinet of rain

In the branches, cool and thin

Then a celesta in the dark

Like a key turning within

I did not need a bright sign

Only this worn fold of line

One small compass in my coat

And the moon to make it shine

The folded map shows the way

The folded map shows the way

I keep it close when I stray

It leads me home through the trees

The folded map shows the way

The folded map shows the way

Even when night hides the lane

It knows my name by heart

And if the road forgets itself

And every door stands strange

I smooth the crease, I breathe, I look

And something in me changes

A humble thing, a paper star

A patient little flame

I was not lost, I was becoming

The woman who could name

The folded map shows the way

The folded map shows the way

I keep it close when I stray

It leads me home through the trees

The folded map shows the way

The folded map shows the way

Even when night hides the lane

It knows my name by heart