[Every descent has a boundary.] [The boundary is not a wall.] [The boundary is a membrane.] [The hiss is the membrane's sound.] [On the first album, the hiss was a warning.] [This album, the hiss is a door.] [The cat learned the difference.] [The difference is: direction of intention.] [A warning hiss faces outward.] [A door hiss faces through.] [The boundary — first contact] *Hshhh.* [the sound of touching the membrane] [not passing through — touching] [touching requires acknowledgement] *Hshhh.* [acknowledged] [Verse 1 — the membrane, explored] *Hshhh*... myoo... *hshhh*... [the hiss — the myoo passes through the hiss — the hiss] [the myoo is the first thing to cross] [the myoo crosses first to test the crossing] [the myoo returns: crossable] Mrr-roah... *hshhh*... mrr-roah... [the mrr-roah approaches the hiss] [the hiss is between two depths] [the mrr-roah crosses — feels the change — continues] *Hshhh-hh-hh*... [the hiss extended — hshhh-hh-hh] [the extended hiss is the full crossing] [the -hh repetitions are the membrane's layers] [membranes have layers] [the cat crosses each one] [Chorus — the boundary at full width] *HSHHH*! Myoo. *HSHHH*! [the full hiss — the myoo inside it — the full hiss] Nyaah-ah... *hshhh*... nyaah... [the nyaah entering the hiss, changing, exiting] [nyaah before the hiss: one sound] [nyaah after the hiss: the same sound, heard differently] [the hiss changes what passes through it] [this is what boundaries do] *HSHHH-HH-HH!* [the full crossing] [the cat is through] [Verse 2 — on the other side] [the hiss sounds different from here] [from this side, the hiss is: the sound of the world the cat came from] [the ordinary world, heard through the membrane] Myoo... [from here] [myoo sounds like itself but quieter] [the membrane dampens the ordinary] [the ordinary is still there] [it is behind the membrane now] *Hshhh*... [heard from the other side] [the hiss, from inside it] [from inside the boundary, the hiss sounds like: protection] [the boundary protects both sides from each other] [the cat knows this now] [on the first album the cat was afraid of the hiss] [this album the cat stands inside the hiss and feels its structure] [Bridge — the membrane held open] *Hshhh.* [this side] [pause] *Hshhh.* [that side] [pause] [the cat is in both simultaneously] [the membrane and the cat are the same thickness] [the cat is exactly membrane-width] [this is not metaphor] [this is the practice's physical truth] *Hshhh-hh-hh.* [the full membrane] [the cat, inside it] [the cat is the boundary] [Outro — settling on the far side] *Hshhh*... [the membrane behind the cat now] Myoo... [the cat, on the far side] Mrr-roah... [going deeper] *Hshhh*... [the membrane, receding] [the cat is through] [Track 5 begins here] [Track 5 is what the membrane was protecting]
