Tendrils in the Throat v2

Song: “Tendrils in the Breath”

Verse 1

I want to give it

I need to receive it

I want to find another

and be surprised again and again

by the quiet strength of her character

I want the muscle to stay

active in the supporting

Pre-chorus

But something heavier

is already lying across my chest

Chorus

He’s always on top of me

hand loose around the throat

not cruel, just indifferent

like weather that forgot the sun

He only knows one way the body goes

daze and malaise, autonomous

slime-mold reaching for the sugar of the next hour

and I am too far under

to make him stop and think

Verse 2

He plants thin green filaments

down the esophagus

they take root in the soft wet dark of the lungs

so every breath

comes with a little extra weight

I have to reach in sometimes

and tear the long white strings out

by hand

It hurts

but the air tastes cleaner after

Bridge

He’s mostly harmless

an inconvenience with deep roots

If I could wake him

he might notice the damage

but he is still asleep

and I am still breathing

around him

Final chorus (quieter, then building)

I still want to give it

I still need to receive it

I still want to discover

and be surprised

over and over

by the quality of a living character

So I keep one hand free

to pull the tendrils when they thicken

and the other hand open

for whoever is coming

with a different kind of weight

(fade on a single held note, then silence)