Till the Thunder Comes
Nova Rai · Haresalam, 19 of 23
The story
This song is a storm, and I won't pretend it isn't. It is about two people who stop hiding from each other, where hunger is not shame and the body is not the enemy. The body keeps what daylight makes us hide. Inside the storm there is no shame, only two people finally telling the truth.
Lyrics
You traced the border of my chest,
your mouth the only guard I passed.
You nursed my breast like you'd been starved.
I held your skull and held it fast.
I tore your clothes like tearing weeds,
we came down naked to the floor.
The shock of belly flat on belly
was church enough. I locked the door.
I am not sorry for my hunger,
you are not sorry for your teeth.
The animal is not the monster, baby.
The animal is underneath.
I swallow you, you swallow me,
and everything I have I show.
Inside the storm there is no shame.
Inside the storm there is no no.
Rock with me,
rock with me,
rock with me
till the thunder comes.
You slid inside me like a key
that finally found the lock it knew.
I arched and pulled you deeper still,
past every word I never grew.
My nails wrote scripture down your back,
you drank me at the open shore.
I took you in my throat like tide
and rode you slow and asked for more.
I swallow you, you swallow me,
and everything I have I show.
Inside the storm there is no shame.
Inside the storm there is no no.
I push you in, you pull me down,
we lose the names we came here in.
Inside the storm there is no shame.
Inside the storm there is no sin.
Rock with me,
rock with me,
rock with me
till the thunder comes.
You turned me over. I said stay.
Your fingers knew and found the way.
I made the sound I never made
for anyone who ever paid.
You took the rope. I gave my hands.
You wound them soft, you wound them tight.
I've worn a cord like yours before,
another room, another night.
And none of it was ever hiding.
The loose, the tight, they were the same.
Both of them were played piano.
Both of them without a name.
You put your hand around my throat.
I said again. I said give more.
I climbed above you, took the floor,
and rode you like a burning boat.
The salt of me, the sweet of me,
you tasted every page and turned them all,
and none of them were dirty.
None of them were dirt.
I know the sound you never make,
the one you swallow at the break.
I know the face behind the face,
the one that only comes in that one place.
You grabbed my hair. You held it tight.
You held it like a man holds rope.
I pulled you close by what was hard
and felt you soften. That was hope.
Give me the groan, give me the grip,
give me the teeth marks on my lip,
give me the part you hide from God.
I've had my mouth on it. It's good.
And it was beautiful.
Now let go.
And the sky
broke
open.
We swallow everything we see.
Inside the storm there is no shame.
We are the flood,
we are the heat,
we are the salt, we are the sweet,
we are the scratches on the sheet.
We are the evidence
that speaks.
Rock with me,
rock with me
till the thunder comes,
till the thunder comes,
till the thunder.
And now we lie like land in rain,
your salt on me, my salt on you,
and neither reaches for the towel
because there's nothing to undo.
The body knows. It always knows.
It keeps what daylight makes us hide.
And when the shame comes back tonight,
press play. And come back here. Inside.