Confluence

"Confluence” is a love song for Fort Wayne. Not the postcard version. This one is for the muddy waters and mismatched sidewalks, the collision of past and future, the sacred ordinary of rivers that refuse to flow alone.

I wrote this song around the image of our city’s three rivers, especially the place where the St. Joe and St. Mary meet to become the Maumee. They come from different places, with different stories, but they don’t fight to stay separate. They merge. They flow on. That felt like a metaphor worth singing about.

This song is my offering to the city I call home, where resurrection feels possible, even when hope feels like a long shot.

VERSE 1
St. Joe and St. Mary—different rivers, different names
From Ohio and from Michigan, they meet up in Fort Wayne
They flow with separate currents, carving stories on their banks
Until colliding at a confluence, a whirlpool of grace
Muddy waters join in dissonance, but leave in harmony
And the two become one river, as the Maumee when they leave

CHORUS 1
I stand here at the confluence
Where the waters reconcile
Making something beautiful
Where death gives way to life

VERSE 2
Through concrete-covered cobblestones and asphalt tributaries
To the coffee bar slash barbershop on Lafayette and Berry
Old ideals still crash like accidents, claiming right of way
Thinking we're a dying rust-belt town, one that's long-since had its day
But I believe in resurrection, even in this Midwest town
Muddy waters sing in harmony, and my hope will never drown

CHORUS 2
So meet me at the confluence
Where the waters reconcile
Let’s make something beautiful
Where death gives way to life

TAG
I believe in resurrection, even in this Midwest town