The Surgeon And the Scientist

Don't call this an art project

This is science, this is progress

And don't pretend these are heartfelt words

We are children dressed as surgeons but disturbed by the sight of our scars

And now we carry scalpels to trace the scarring

Resting somewhere on the line between my house, your heart and into your home

Where you lay sleeping like a ceiling fan in winter

Gently turning as the wind reaches its fingers through the window

Just to hold you, like I held you

Pressed like a rose between my fingers

Or like stones I keep in pockets meant to weigh me underwater

Meant to keep me underwater

Now meant to keep me underwater

These scars will fade away but never disappear, my dear

We'll raise our fists like lightning to rods to God

And if he strikes us down

Then he strikes us down

But first, let him hear us speak

We are like the legacy of thunderstorms we watched and swore in doorways

We would never be the same again

I can feel you healing and I hate it

Like a harpist without hands

You only bang the strings you used to love to touch so much

To hear the dissonance drain violently into the air and then dissolve

Like all the songs I sang but never once could make you smile

My God, I would kill to make you smile

My God, I would kill to make you smile

Oh, my God, I would kill to make you smile

My God, I would kill to make you smile

My God, I would kill to make you smile, smile, smile

And reach out to my hands, soft and frail

To make good on the love that you swear still exists and still thrives

Though we've buried our bodies in blood and old lies

Like, "I'm fine" and "you look so much better than him"

But don't trust the surgeon with your heart

She's drunk and sips from poison cups

And don't you trust the scientist

He says "life is like a wine glass" as he spills his drink like secrets

All across your dress and says

"My dear, I must confess

I never thought you ever knew what love was like for real

I never thought you needed me"