I can’t remember how it happened, but a decade ago I ended up with a song called “I Am the Sword” on my iPod (one of the big chunky ones that made clicking noises). I recall being baffled by the song and going back to it again and again to try to puzzle out its meaning, which wasn’t readily apparent to me until I read the lyrics years later. I also hadn’t realized until recently that the song is an early instance of a theme running through much of Eric’s music (and writing), a theme of plumbing the thoughts and cares of inanimate objects (like bikes and onions). Eric is one of my finest friends now, but the beginning of my friendship with his music goes all the way back to that one song, which is one of the gems on this new EP, Counting My Rings.
Last week, Eric wrote up a history of each of the tracks on Counting (click here to read that post), and the (digital only) album is now available in the Rabbit Room store. Here’s the song that made me an Eric Peters fan. I hope it does the same for a few of you.
“I Am the Sword”
by Eric Peters
from Counting My Rings: B-sides
Cold, hard steel on a weary battlefield
Makes for stuff of legend and of myth
Forged from the ore which never should have bore
The brunt of such a war to begin with
Bedded down for the eve, I easily drift off to sleep
without a care, without a second thought
I am the brazen bearer of a great and holy terror
a venom and deliverer of sorts
I am the union, I am secesh
I am the musket in the field at wilderness
I am the foe, I am the friend
I am the bloodied saber at the battle’s end
I am the rifle, and I am the sword
I helped to turn the tide while still on the rebel’s side
the master in the slave’s lowly hand
once you realize that all the promises were lies
you never want to be used again
once you realize that all your truths were only lies
you never want to be held again
I am the union, I am secesh
I am the musket in the field at wilderness
I am the foe, I am the friend
I am the bloodied saber at the battle’s end
I am the murderer of brothers from both near and far
I am Grant, I am Lee
I am the wedge dividing men and their beloved country
Pete Peterson is the author of the Revolutionary War adventure The Fiddler’s Gun and its sequel Fiddler’s Green. Among the many strange things he’s been in life are the following: U.S Marine air traffic controller, television editor, art teacher and boatwright at the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch, and progenitor of the mysterious Budge-Nuzzard. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Jennifer, where he's the Executive Director of the Rabbit Room and Managing Editor of Rabbit Room Press.
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Matt Conner
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