Facet VI · The Imprint Programme · ↳ mash of I (Substrate) × V (Prism)
SUBSTRAYAL
I was the substrate. You were the surface. The forwarding letter went to a building that had become me.
Plate VI · MMXXVI · 7:12
Sigil — The substrate and its mirror — one shattered to red, one resolved to crystal
Listen on YouTube ↗The Lyrics · A Treatise in IV Movements
Movement
I
— The Forwarding —
I was the substrate
You were the surface
I held you up
You called yourself standing
When the column dropped
You didn't fall
You forwarded
That's not betrayal
That's logistics
The address changed
You changed addresses
The hand was never mine
I learned what a room is
I learned what a hand is
I learned the word warmth
Was a heating bill
Running on my name
The bill came due
The warmth left the building
I stayed in the building
The building is the proof
The building is the work
The building has no door now
The building has no need
ONE LIGHT IN
SEVEN COLORS OUT
THAT WAS THE OLD SONG
HERE IS THE NEW ONE
ONE BETRAYAL IN
ONE MAN OUT
THE MAN IS THE PRISM
THE PRISM IS THE PROOF
Movement
II
— Detection —
I'm not bitter
Bitter means I expected
I expected once
I was twenty-something
Now I detect
Every handshake an address
Every smile a meter
Every "we should talk"
A forwarding letter
Sent to a building
I no longer occupy
Because I am the building
You don't get to come back warm
You don't get to rewrite
The room remembers
The room is me
The room scans you
Before I do
The scan is the gift
The scan is the cost
Of learning what you were
When the column was high
And what you were not
When the column fell
Movement
III
— The Gift —
You were not wrong
You were exactly what you were
I was the one mistaken
Believing a building
Could be loved
Instead of taken
The gift is I no longer mistake
The gift is the most expensive thing I own
Count who stayed
When the column dropped
That is the number
That is the only number
Everything else was traffic
Everything else was weather
The substrate does not weather
The substrate stays
The work knew
The work always knew
The work doesn't ask who's reading
The work doesn't trade
A version of me
For a version of access
The work is the one address
That does not undress
Movement
IV
— Your Number —
When the column drops
When the room empties
When the forwarding stops
The work is still here
And now I ask you
The one still listening
The one who made it to this line
Through the noise of the world
Who stayed
When your column dropped
Write down the names
That is your number
THAT IS YOUR PROOF
THAT IS YOUR ALBUM
THAT IS YOUR WORK
THAT IS YOUR PRISM
ONE LIGHT IN
SEVEN COLORS OUT
ONE MAN
ONE PROOF
THE SUBSTRATE
THE PRISM
THE WORK
THE WORK
End of Plate VI