Fulcrum

Detect my sudden existence on your sonar; feel the echo;
Electrify the Resistance in your broken heart and burn it up. Oh,
we're gonna photosynthesize and drink up the sunrise.
Let me uncover the silver in your dark hair, the weight of your bones.
I want to witness the beauty of your repair, the shape you've grown,
for you are made of nebulas and novas and night skies.
You're made of memories you bury or live by.
Some nights we open up the flood and some nights we are lost
and some nights we're choking on the words but some we light on fire.
If you're out there in the cold, I'll cover you in moonlight.
If you're a stranger to your soul, I'll bring you to your birthright.
I want the storm inside you awoken now. I want your warm bright eyes
to come back to me and hold on to me. You know that I won't lie.
Don't ever look away. Don't you ever look away.

"Who's afraid of the sun? Who would question the goodness of the mighty—
we who banish the threat when your little ones all go nighty-nighty?
Well, there's no time for doubt right now and less time to explain,
so get back on your horses, kiss my ring, and join our next campaign."
And the Empire grows with the news that we're winning,
with more fear to conquer and more gold thread for spinning,
bright as the sun shining on everyone.
"Some would say that we forced our words, and we find that ingenuously churlish.
Words are just words. Don't be so pessimistic, weak, and girlish.
We like strong, happy people who don't think there's something wrong with pride.
Work makes them free and we spread that freedom far and wide."
And the Empire sows the seeds of its glory.
"For every five tanks, plant a sentimental story 'til they worship the sun—even Christ-loving ones;
and we'll kill the terrorizers and a million other races,
but when our people torture you, that's a few random cases.
Don't question the sun. It doesn't help anyone."
But the journalist cried out when it was too late to stop us.
Everyone had awakened to the dream they could enter our colossus.
"Now I'm right. Yeah, you said I'm right. There's nothing that can harm me
'cause the sun never sets on my dungeons or my army."
And the Empire fell on its own splintered axis
and the Emperor wanes as the silver moon waxes
and the farmers will find gold coins in their strawberry fields,
while somebody somewhere twists their ring and someone kneels.
Oh, where is the sun shining for everyone?
Where is the sun shining for everyone?

Here comes the beekeeper with her pitcher full of smoke.
She'll put us all to sleep. I hope it's dreamless and it's deep.
Sweet Prometheus, come home; they took away our fire
and all that scarcity promotes is desperate men and tyrants.
The surgeon and farmer meet and each greets the other with a bow.
They're kindred instruments, you know: the scalpel and the plough;
and in the shadow of the mountain, we work when work abounds,
and we wear out all our prayers when the work runs out.
What fine design—what hands, what minds;
the envy of Eden: our tools and our reason.
It's clear in the animals' eyes.
We stand upright; build fires at night;
we're made on the sixth day to rest on the seventh
and now we just try to survive.

I learned how to paint my face, how to earn my keep, how to clean my kill.
Some nights I still can't sleep. The past rolls back; I can see us, still.
You learned how to hold your own, how to stack your stones, but the history's thick.
Children aren't as simple as we'd like to think.

Mine are like the wings of a butterfly—a dusty pair, so don't you touch them or I'll never fly anywhere.
Ever see the wings of a dragonfly? Paper-thin and cellophane and quickly broken like the will to live for a mind in pain.
I cannot change what is and I cannot make it die, but I can love with all my heart the wretches gone awry.
(And the wretches have gone awry. I saw them walk on by.)
You know I can be rid of my time and the moon will always shine 'cause he knows I need him to walk this vile and crooked line.
You can own all the light in the world and still be blind, and lie and hide away from the people in the world and still be kind.
I cannot change what is and I cannot make it die, but I can love with all my heart the wretches gone awry.
(And the wretches have gone awry. I saw them walk on by.)
All I ask is you let me be to live like I do. I'll never be bold but someday I will pass on through.
You can pull the wings from a dragonfly and you can kill the flight of a butterfly but you can't harm me for I live with the freedom to decide.
You cannot change what is and you cannot make it die, but you can love with all your heart the wretches gone awry.
(And the wretches have gone awry. I saw them walk on by.)

I am the one who knows you. I am the one you fear. I am the one who's always been here.
I am the one who'll hear you. I know you told her that I'm not worth a damn, but I know you know who I am.
'Cause I'm holding on and I won't let go. I want you to know:
I am the one who held you. I am the one who cried. I am the one who watched while you died.
I am the one who loved you. I tried pretending that I don't give a damn, but you've always known who I am.