Iv. THE CROWN
You ask what I laid upon the altar,
as though this form you call a life
were ever a gift.
What was placed there
did not return whole.
You ask what I laid upon the altar,
as though this form you call a life
were ever a gift.
What was placed there
did not return whole.
You ask what I laid upon the altar,
as though this form you call a life
were ever a gift.
What was placed there
did not return whole.
I poured myself out upon an unpaved road
and turned from mornings
that promised return.
Whatever tenderness yet clung to me
became strange to my hands.
I sent love away—
not from want,
but lest it be consumed by my fire.
I poured myself out upon an unpaved road
and turned from mornings
that promised return.
Whatever tenderness yet clung to me
became strange to my hands.
I sent love away—
not from want,
but lest it be consumed by my fire.
I poured myself out upon an unpaved road
and turned from mornings
that promised return.
Whatever tenderness yet clung to me
became strange to my hands.
I sent love away—
not from want,
but lest it be consumed by my fire.
I was given a choice, as any man is.
And I relinquished it—
every unformed future—
and crossed the line once drawn for mercy.
What followed no longer waited
for permission.
I was given a choice, as any man is.
And I relinquished it—
every unformed future—
and crossed the line once drawn for mercy.
What followed no longer waited
for permission.
I was given a choice, as any man is.
And I relinquished it—
every unformed future—
and crossed the line once drawn for mercy.
What followed no longer waited
for permission.
I entered the hollow I named my calling
and spread myself thin across it
until only ghosts would hear
my hopes and my dreams,
and even they passed without staying.
I entered the hollow I named my calling
and spread myself thin across it
until only ghosts would hear
my hopes and my dreams,
and even they passed without staying.
I entered the hollow I named my calling
and spread myself thin across it
until only ghosts would hear
my hopes and my dreams,
and even they passed without staying.
This path I designed
has become a body.
It grows where I am weakest
and remembers every step.
This path I designed
has become a body.
It grows where I am weakest
and remembers every step.
This path I designed
has become a body.
It grows where I am weakest
and remembers every step.
I gave it my hunger
and it learned to multiply.
I gave it my pride
and it learned to rule.
I gave it my hunger
and it learned to multiply.
I gave it my pride
and it learned to rule.
I gave it my hunger
and it learned to multiply.
I gave it my pride
and it learned to rule.
What I made to escape the world
now towers over me,
asking not where I am going—
but whether I will survive the journey.
What I made to escape the world
now towers over me,
asking not where I am going—
but whether I will survive the journey.
What I made to escape the world
now towers over me,
asking not where I am going—
but whether I will survive the journey.
I did not fashion it for praise.
I raised it because peace had no voice among them.
Their tongues were taught by violence,
their scales were false,
and their judgments fell upon the innocent.
To stand upright in their midst
was to be struck down.
I did not fashion it for praise.
I raised it because peace had no voice among them.
Their tongues were taught by violence,
their scales were false,
and their judgments fell upon the innocent.
To stand upright in their midst
was to be struck down.
I did not fashion it for praise.
I raised it because peace had no voice among them.
Their tongues were taught by violence,
their scales were false,
and their judgments fell upon the innocent.
To stand upright in their midst
was to be struck down.
So I took up their measure.
I answered blow with heavier blow,
iniquity with greater force,
and called it judgment.
I made the beast to stand against them
where righteousness was trampled—
and it began to ask of me
what once belonged to God.
So I took up their measure.
I answered blow with heavier blow,
iniquity with greater force,
and called it judgment.
I made the beast to stand against them
where righteousness was trampled—
and it began to ask of me
what once belonged to God.
So I took up their measure.
I answered blow with heavier blow,
iniquity with greater force,
and called it judgment.
I made the beast to stand against them
where righteousness was trampled—
and it began to ask of me
what once belonged to God.
The beast fed upon all that was left of me.
What little remained clean
was licked away.
It devoured the prayers my mother laid before heaven,
swallowed the words spoken over my name
before I learned to speak.
The beast fed upon all that was left of me.
What little remained clean
was licked away.
It devoured the prayers my mother laid before heaven,
swallowed the words spoken over my name
before I learned to speak.
The beast fed upon all that was left of me.
What little remained clean
was licked away.
It devoured the prayers my mother laid before heaven,
swallowed the words spoken over my name
before I learned to speak.
God yet calls to me—
but the beast leads me elsewhere,
to the outer places,
where the house is seen from afar
and the door is never opened.
God yet calls to me—
but the beast leads me elsewhere,
to the outer places,
where the house is seen from afar
and the door is never opened.
God yet calls to me—
but the beast leads me elsewhere,
to the outer places,
where the house is seen from afar
and the door is never opened.
I burned myself for a tomorrow
that will not remember who lit the fire.
I gave my body to the threshold,
my blood to the keeping of others,
that my people might pass through the judgment
while I remained behind.
I burned myself for a tomorrow
that will not remember who lit the fire.
I gave my body to the threshold,
my blood to the keeping of others,
that my people might pass through the judgment
while I remained behind.
I burned myself for a tomorrow
that will not remember who lit the fire.
I gave my body to the threshold,
my blood to the keeping of others,
that my people might pass through the judgment
while I remained behind.
You ask again what I have given.
You ask again what I have given.
You ask again what I have given.
I searched myself
and found nothing left to withhold.
I searched myself
and found nothing left to withhold.
I searched myself
and found nothing left to withhold.
I gave every breath that was mine.
I gave every breath that was mine.
I gave every breath that was mine.
I gave all.
I gave all.
I gave all.