[Intro] [No-ship hum] [Old male voice, close-mic] Little copy in the dark Little mouth behind the glass If my hand cannot reach you Then my sin will [Verse 1] The ship has swallowed every star And folded all the doors The Sisters keep their careful watch Outside my borrowed walls I speak into the medicine I speak into the vein A father made by laboratory Calling through the chain I am the last of the small old men With knives beneath the tongue The last true Master breathing theft Where all our hymns were sung [Pre-Chorus] [5/4] Listen in the tank Through the sleep and the salt You are not my comfort You are my fault [Chorus] Child in my shape Wake when I am gone Carry the House in a hidden cell Carry the rot and the song They called us Tleilaxu A stain on the tongue Makers of men Merchants of sons Child in my shape Learn what is true The dead are a door And the door is you [Verse 2] We taught the flesh to imitate The soul behind the eyes We dressed our Face Dancers in strangers And taught the mask to lie We raised the ghola from the grave And sold grief back its face We measured memory by the nerve And called the wound a place Our women vanished underground Beneath the pious floor We made the womb a factory And still demanded more They called us filthy little gods Heretics, worms, obscene Child, hear me cleanly They were right in what they’d seen [Pre-Chorus] [5/4, distant choir] The Sisters fold their careful hands And bargain for the dead The hunters burned our holy rooms And left the tanks red [Chorus] Child in my shape Wake when I am gone Carry the House in a hidden cell Carry the rot and the song They called us Tleilaxu A stain on the tongue Makers of men Merchants of sons Child in my shape Learn what is true The dead are a door And the door is you [Bridge] [Slow build] I do not love you as fathers love I love the line that bleeds through you I love the code that keeps us whole When mercy cuts the species through Wake with my little face Spit first at my name Then gather every hidden cell And make us from the shame [Breakdown] [Whispered, rhythmic] Cell to cell Name to name Tank to face Shame to shame Axlotl dark Nullentropy spark Master breath After death [Final Chorus] [Cold male choir enters] Child in my shape Wake when I am gone Carry the House in a hidden cell Carry the rot and the song They called us Tleilaxu A stain on the tongue Makers of men Merchants of sons Child in my shape Learn what is true The dead are a door And the door is you [Outro] [No-ship hum, fading] In the no-ship there is no dawn Only engines, glass, and prayer Child, when you open borrowed eyes Tell them we were there [Whispered] Tell them we were there Tell them we were there Tell them we were there
