Burned then buried

Hurried endlessly through eternities

I thought I had to

Mirrors in everyone's eyes

Looking for ways I kept falling behind

Why haven't I been pinned up on the bulletin with all the rest of the specimen?

Am I not delicate enough?

I was caught between one and the other, and there was no way out

Up on the hillside, or lying underground

But I'll roll the stone a little more

Crackling porcelain

Every wound is open, but no evidence

What was taken?

Fear was what got me to try

But stone nor steel could keep it inside

No display of raging war would stay onstage, years of struggling under streetlights

Bled me dry

I was caught between one and the other, and there was no way out

Up on the hillside, or lying underground

But I'll roll the stone a little more

I don't know how I fell, but all along I already knew

Beauty cannot be bloodless, it just didn't look true

'Cause I was taught that I wanted to be dying all the time

But all I learned was that all my worth was not in my blood or life

But in the birth of winter before the morning light

I kissed the earth and thanked her for bearing me til I came back

I picked myself off the floor

Rolled the stone from the door

And by the time the sun was high the light lapped all around the path I walked

And it never was so red