Higher Ground
Nova Rai · Haresalam, 22 of 23
The story
When the morning finds you standing, remember the current that runs through you. You were built to carry voltage, not to quit. The candles burn down, the night ends, and you walk through the door. You were never built for small. You were built for more.
Lyrics
Honey, breathe
I didn't come to be your peace
I came to find the wire
That you buried underneath
I know where it leads
I know what it feeds
The part of you that wants
Is the part of you that needs
I don't do kind
I do exact
I find the gap between your ribs
And slip through the crack
One touch, you pretend
Two touch, you confess
Three, you stop performing
All that graceful emptiness
You think you're drained
You think you're through
Baby, I've been reading currents
Longer than I've known you
The fuse you blew
Was never mine to fix
I just lick the copper clean
And let the voltage stick
Get up now
Get up now
God put his finger on your chest
Said: not yet
Not yet
There's a fire that needs tending
And a man who won't confess
That the light he's been defending
Is the light inside his dress
I arrive the way a hymn arrives inside a mouth that swore it wouldn't sing
I'm the ring around the finger that you took off but you kept the ring
I'm the sermon and the sinning I'm the ending and beginning
and the only thing between them is the sound your body's making
when it finally stops pretending
put your spine where your apology was kneeling
put your want where your permission hit the ceiling
I don't comfort I conduct and what I'm running through your frame
is the frequency the church won't teach because it has no name
the sacred and the sinful share a pillow and a flame
and if you think they're different, love
that's how they play the game
the plug the socket and the surge
the hymn the whisper and the urge
the moment right before the light
when everything you are's a verb
the mercy and the misbehave
the altar and the moan
the voltage entering the wound
and exiting the bone
and baby
you will stand
up
Mystique, mystique
Feel that hum beneath your ribs
That's not emptiness
It's what the darkness hid
You were built to carry current
Not to quit
The stars are not above you, love
You swallowed every one of it
Numa bai, numa sei
Ariola
Every volt I ever borrowed
Coming back to you right now
Every door you left ajar
I am walking through it now
Lie back in the water
Let it hold you at the bone
Thirty-seven degrees
Is the temperature of home
And when the morning finds you standing
And you walk her through the door
Remember what the current said:
You were never built for small
You were built for more