Bury Your Flame
Oh, we could blame it on our hands
They lifted the drink to our mouths so we drank it
Or we could blame it on our bodies
They say, “We like the way we feel when we get touched”
You’ve got your fingers snared in my veins
I think it’s time you pulled them out
And I don’t care about the flesh it’ll tear
It isn’t flesh that I’m worried about
We held a match to keep our sight on the path
But the flame gave up and we lost it
And I’ve knelt for the last three years
Trying to find it back with the blackened matchstick
Today I’m not afraid of failure
“The past is a flower; the future, the snow”
I wasn’t ever close to perfect
But I never let you go
You let your doubt like a river
Lead you on and on and on and
You will never get back
To save what you had, hear me promise, “I will
Bury your problems in me so sleep soundly”
I held your heart in my fingers
Now it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone and
You will never admit
That you bid the wind blow the flames out
And buried the coals in the sea, you tricked me
You came back and you brought floods
Wearing a necklace made of hearts
That you’d dragged through the mud
And I guess I wasn’t quite sure what to say to you
But then I saw mine, almost reached out to grab it. Said,
“Darling, you’re the only one on Earth I want to have it”
But now I’m not so sure that that was true
After the hell you put it through
But there was no sharp pain this time
Just the ghost of your presence compressing my chest like a vine
An unshakeable absence, like most of my insides
Crawled out through my mouth and went west. But that’s fine
We cast our hearts in plaster
We imagined our bodies were fashioned from stone but
They chipped at the brick and the mortar
We found out that we’re only layers of skin hiding bone
And our bones are like chains
Old and rusted in the rain
They’re going to snap when the weight shifts
You moved like a fire through the forest
Your hands were as red as the skin on your lips
You’d been flirting with distance, princess
I tasted its spit in your kiss
Oh, mistress, know
Today I will bury the flames of your failure
The past is a liar; the future, a whore
I’ll lay your bones into the earth and you
Will haunt my head no more
Oh, we could blame it on our hands
Oh, we could blame it on our hands, but
It was our mouths that opened up to swallow
And our heads that commanded us drink
But as I buried your flames in the dirt
I watched the smoke pull your ghost from the grave. And
I fear they’ll only lay in wait
Till we are face to face again
Just when I said, “I’m moving, I’m moving on”
I felt them come to life again
And again, and again, and again
There are fires
That tear through valleys and make dust from grass
There are fires
There are wires
Bound to blue light they pull us to the past
There are wires