Beneath the stagnant water Where sunlight cannot fall A flower drinks the darkness And answers to no god The silt has filled the empty graves The roots have learned the names Of every mouth beneath the mud Of everything that came A pale hand breaks the surface Then disappears below A single flower opens Where nothing ought to grow Black petals, my lotus Rise from the drowned and dead Black petals, my lotus Crown of rot on my head The roots coil round my hollow chest They flower through my bones I feel the earth reclaim the flesh It once had called its own No heaven waits beneath the mire No judgment waits for me The flower takes what I have been And makes what I can't see Black petals, my lotus Rise from the drowned and dead Black petals, my lotus Crown of rot on my head Pull me under Let me sink No more hunger No more fear Let the water fill my lungs Let the roots consume my years Black petals, my lotus Rise from the drowned and dead Black petals, my lotus Crown of rot on my head Black petals, my lotus Take everything I was What the living call an ending Is the beginning of the dust I am soil And you are real
