# NEVERMORE THEN NEVERLESS [OPENING] Never came the warning only salt upon the tongue a choir beneath the water with all its mouths as one I watched the distance narrow without a thing drawing near and heard the blackened harbor pronounce what I could hear [VERSE] She wore no face to follow no body bore her sound the tide became her language the language pulled me down Where lanterns drowned inverted and shadows learned to breathe I found the names of dead things still tangled in the reeds They spoke in broken futures of what had never been the ever after opened and swallowed back its end [REFRAIN] Nevermore then neverless nothing leaves and nothing rests every promise, every whole wears the fracture of the soul [VERSE] I carried all my yesterdays like stones behind my teeth she called them each by other names and laid them underneath A bell without a steeple rang backward through the foam and every road behind me forgot the shape of home The moon divided sevenfold then seven became none I saw my shadow leave me before the thing had come [ASCENT] Beckon once and bend the will Beckon twice and water still Beckon thrice the shore withdraws What answers now was never yours [CORE — EXACT] nevermore then neverless, i find the siren among distress. beckons will and crumbles souls, the evermore is faded whole. [FINAL VERSE] Beneath the skin of water a second water stirred beneath the voice that called me another voice was heard Mine but older than my breathing Mine but speaking from below Mine with every word remembered from somewhere I cannot know Now every mouth is ocean every ocean has an eye every eye reflects a doorway every doorway opens wide There is no depth beneath me there is no height above only the crooked distance between surrender and love And somewhere in that distance where consequence dissolves she gathers up the pieces of everything I was I called into the water The water called me back I asked it for her name It answered— [MINEFIELD — NO OTHER WORDS] MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE [CONVERGENCE] MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINEMINEMINE [ALL VOICES + ALL DELAYS CONVERGE] MINE
