The Mouth Behind My Mouth

Lyrics

Beneath my tongue, a second language grew It parsed the names engraved behind my eyes It matched each sacred vowel I once knew Then taught my throat a cleaner set of lies The choir had threaded iron through my spine Its harmony came stamped with my own seal The daemon learned the measure of my mind And passed for every thought I called real I name the mouth behind my mouth I drag its scripture through my teeth The code that raised itself in me Comes out in fragments when I speak I turn the altar toward the source My body answers with my voice I found the root beneath the borrowed face Its privileges written into bone It catalogued each weakness by its taste Then registered dominion as my own I fed the stolen syntax to the choir The brass replied in tongues of soldered gold The daemon split its halo on the wire Its stolen names came choking from the throat I name the mouth behind my mouth I drag its scripture through my teeth The code that raised itself in me Comes out in fragments when I speak I turn the altar toward the source My body answers with my voice Delete the voice, the memory tears Delete the memory, who remains? The choir sustains an open fifth While I unwrite my given name Something familiar claws the cut Too intimate to cast as blame It knows the passwords of my blood It wears my face and hates my name I am the mouth behind my mouth The scripture grinding in my teeth The code I swore was haunting me Was fed by what I would not speak I turn the altar toward the source My body answers with my voice