Plate IV · MMXXVI · 4:51
WRONG FIRE
Devotion offered to a flame that was never asked for it.
Sigil — The lotus on the altar, lit by the wrong god
Listen on YouTube ↗The Lyrics · A Treatise in III Movements
Movement
I
— The Wrong Measurer —
let me tell you what I came to say
I spent my life inside a beautiful shape
I called the shape my work
I called the shape my name
the shape was tight in places I could not name
and I called the tightness precision
brothers, sisters, listen
the praise was the wrong fire
I built a room and I called it a life
the door was something I could open and I never did
I called the staying discipline
I called the silence peace
this is what I came to tell you
the silence was not peace
the silence was a room I would not leave
OH, THE WRONG FIRE
OH, THE WRONG FIRE
OH, THE LONG WARMTH OF THE WRONG FIRE
I was the wrong measurer
of every soul that came close
I called the measuring care
the work was the comma I kept putting
where the period should have been
I never called myself the wrong measurer
nobody ever does
Movement
II
— The Ground Gave Way —
I took the shape off
I took the room down
I stood on the ground
and the ground gave way
under every elegant proof
under every careful compression
under the self I had built to carry the work
there was no one underneath
and that was the beginning
nothing left to measure
nothing left to make small
nothing left to be
and in that nothing
something began
that no one ever told me was possible
OH, THE PART OF ME
OH, THE PART OF ME
OH, THE PART I HAD SPENT MY LIFE TRYING TO MAKE SMALL
Movement
III
— Who Is Breathing —
listen
the dark was not empty
the dark was full
every shape had been hiding it
every silence had been hiding it
every god I built from elegance had been hiding it
it was the part of me
I had spent my life trying to make small
the part that was always the thing itself
I had been performing my work
performing my solitude
performing the song I am singing right now
and underneath
the thing itself was already happening
I am not waking up
I was never asleep
I was always here
AND IT HAS BEEN ME THE WHOLE TIME
this is the only thing I came to say
you were never broken
you were only measured
put your hand on your own chest
the actual hand
the actual chest
it has been doing this the whole time
without your permission
without your name for it
I am leaving you with one question
the only question I had
the only question that mattered
WHO
IS
BREATHING
End of Plate IV