The Cut

The story

Imagine the universe as one sheet of paper, and someone cuts a heart out of it. You hold the heart. But look back at the paper: the hole is just as whole, and it still holds your shape. The cut is not a wound. It is how the light gets in, and nothing you lost is gone. It is held from the other side.

Lyrics

What if the universe was whole
A paper stretched from pole to pole
And someone drew a heart one day
And cut the center clean away

Now hold the heart. It's in your hand
The atoms, oceans, roads, and sand
But look behind you at the sheet
The hole is just as whole, as sweet

The cut is not a wound, my love
The cut is how the light gets in
The paper holds the shape of us
It always did, it always did

The Nothing whispers: stare ahead
Forget the whole, forget the thread
The paper's gone, there's only you
A cut-out heart in empty blue

But here is what the Nothing missed
The hole remembers what it kissed
The paper kept the shape of us
It always did, it always does

The cut is not a wound, my love
The cut is how the light gets in
The paper holds the shape of us
It always did, it always did

And everything you've ever lost
Was never gone, just lightly tossed
From one hand to the other one
Like shadows trading with the sun

One shape, two sides, one breath, one line
The paper and the heart align
The cut is not a wound, my love
The cut is how the light gets in