Don’t slow it down Back stairwell, bad light water cup shaking in my hand Someone says I look fine That’s not the same as where I am The mirror throws me back with the color half alive I pin my hair up wrong and step into the wires The floor is already moving The kit is counting loud The amps are coughing heat into the blackout crowd No crowd Just ghosts of volume Just the room going bright I can feel my pulse trying to get ahead of the lights Up in the throat up in the hands up where the body stops making plans If I come apart let it be clean If I start to shake feed me the machine Upper fever running white in my blood Upper fever I can’t come down enough If the roof gets low I will sing through the ceiling If the room says no I will outrun the feeling Upper fever high enough to make it real Make it real Make it real Upper fever make it real Red light on the console Blue light in my teeth Every little failure keeps a rhythm under me My boots hit cable My chest hits flame Somebody in the old room would have told me to behave But I’m done with pretty panic Done with being still Done with asking softly if I’m allowed to feel Give me the wrong note Give me the spark Give me the take where the voice goes too far Up in the throat Up in the hands Up where the body stops making plans If I come apart let it be clean If I start to shake feed me the machine Upper fever running white in my blood Upper fever I can’t come down enough If the roof gets low I will sing through the ceiling If the room says no I will outrun the feeling Upper fever high enough to make it real This is not joy Not exactly This is the body finding one more door This is the voice standing on a table inside my chest Saying Again Again when the light bends Again when the breath breaks Again when the room tilts Again when the hand shakes Again when the old fear comes dressed like a limit I was not born quiet I was born in it Upper fever running white in my blood Upper fever I can’t come down enough If the roof gets low I will sing through the ceiling If the room says no I will outrun the feeling Upper fever high enough to make it real Make it real Make it real Don’t slow it down
