The River Keeps the Time

[System boot / banjo tuning]
(click… hum…)
Banjo wakes up with a Cylon glow,
Fiddle runs checks in the status row,
Mandolin pings with a high clear chime,
Bass posts logs on the fault-line time.
We patch our hearts in the BIOS screen,
Field notes saved where the barns have been,
Machine shed echoes in 4/4 rhyme,
We sync our fears to a steady time.

[Verse 1]
I got tabs full of burnout, inbox full of smoke,
Grief in the buffer where the hard days choke,
Forms on the table like a paperwork flood,
Boot-scarred floorboards, sawdust, mud.
Family rides stacked like overlapping threads,
Hayfield meetings in the truck bed sheds,
I clock in feelings on a punch-card line,
Let the banjo parse the warning sign.

[Pre-Chorus]
We got hazards, controls, and banjo rolls,
Safety glasses on our aching souls,
Flag every feeling like a roadside cone,
Map every fracture in the marrow and bone.
We raise our hands when the heart misfires,
Minutes like circuits, wires on wires,
We breathe in slow when the log files climb,
Then listen close for the rural chime.

[Chorus]
Wasi River OS, load my heart this time,
Route my rage through a 4-string rhyme,
Reboot by the river where the birch roots climb,
Where the river keeps the time, yeah, the river keeps the time.
Open-source engineered bluegrass core,
Patch my grief on the gravel shore,
Not in anger, but in light we climb,
Where the river keeps the time, the river keeps the time.

[Verse 2]
Clipboard thunder in the township hall,
Fluorescent halos hum down the wall,
Permits, payments, deadlines, fines,
Red-stamped rubber on our fault-line spines.
Tractor ghosts in the old machine bay,
Memories parked in a rust bouquet,
We version-control every story we tell,
Forked from heaven and a bit from hell.

[Pre-Chorus]
We got hazards, controls, and banjo rolls,
Structured notes for the heavy tolls,
Sprint through sorrow with a two-step gait,
Tag each ticket with the load we freight.
We don’t ignore when the kernel shakes,
We write it down when the daylight breaks,
We document the risk, then kick the drum,
Counting in the feelings when the storms all come.

[Chorus]
Wasi River OS, log me in again,
Route my doubt through a mandolin refrain,
Reboot by the river, wash out the strain,
Where the river keeps the time, through the joy and rain.
Open-source engineered bluegrass flow,
Commit these tears where the white pines grow,
Not in anger, but in light we shine,
Where the river keeps the time, the river keeps the time.

[Bridge: call and response]
(Call) Who audits the ache in a working hand?
(Response) Wasi River OS and the gravel band.
(Call) Who tracks the tremor when the nights run long?
(Response) The safety committee in a four-part song.
(Call) Who holds the rage when the gears misalign?
(Response) Hazards and controls in a banjo line.
(Call) How do we file what we can’t define?
(Response) We sing it to the water till the logs all align.
(Call) What’s the rule when the grief bells chime?
(Response) The river keeps the time, child, the river keeps the time.

[Final Chorus]
Wasi River OS, spin the disk once more,
Patch my hope through a cedar door,
Reboot by the river like we did before,
Where the river keeps the time, on the gravel shore.
Open-source engineered bluegrass bright,
Boot-stomp rhythm in the northern night,
Not in anger, but in light we climb,
Where the river keeps the time, the river keeps the time.

[Outro: river fades, banjo rings]
Banjo rings out like a green-lit sign,
Logs all cleared in a straight-cut line,
Soft old water on a steel-string shine,
The river keeps the time… the river keeps the time.
(OS idle… strings hum…)