[Intro - whispered, dry, almost spoken, no music] Here lies a man... still standing. [Verse 1] Here lies a man, and the lie is he's breathing, carved in a stone he can't roll. I've been casting my line in the shallowest water, hooking applause for a soul. Every prayer had a hook in the middle, every altar had a mirror in the back. And the praise that I chased — it was preying on me, teeth in the small of my back. [Pre-Chorus] So let the applause become a pause. Let the noticing go quiet. I am done with please — God, hear my pleas. I've got nothing left to buy it. [Chorus - distant female harmony first, lead joins] Hollow me out until I'm hallowed. Break the ground, then break the grain. Take the ghost so I can hold the Ghost — what You take is all I gain. Grind me down to something needed, knead me into something fed. I don't want to be a man remembered. I want to be the bread. [Verse 2] Take the mirror off the wall of the chapel. I don't want the verdict in my hand. Self-esteem is just a steam off a kettle — rising, vanishing, unplanned. I've got an urn where I used to keep earnings. Everything I built is what it cost. And the plot that I bought for my body is the same plot I lost. [Pre-Chorus] Let the someday-they'll-see go dark. Let the record go unwritten. I am done with please — God, hear my pleas. Let the whole account be hidden. [Chorus - full, harmony stacks doubled] Hollow me out until I'm hallowed. Break the ground, then break the grain. Take the ghost so I can hold the Ghost — what You take is all I gain. Grind me down to something needed, knead me into something fed. I don't want to be a man remembered. I want to be the bread. [Spoken - single drone, unaccompanied] There's an I in the middle of pride. There's an I in the middle of die. And I can't keep both. So put the eye out. Close the I. Let me stop watching myself be good. Because a seed doesn't get to see it. A seed is the one thing in the whole field that never sees the harvest. It goes down in the dark, alone, and it does not get told what it turned into. That's the deal. That's the whole deal. So don't tell me. Don't ever tell me. Just let something eat. [Bridge - build begins, strings creeping in, choir hums beneath] Let me expire so You can inspire. Same breath — one goes out, one comes in. Let me expire so You can inspire. Let the ending be where You begin. Only what dies remains. Only what dies remains. Only what falls can rise again. [Build - full band, choir open-throated] Shoot me down and watch a shoot come up. Cut the root and I'll find the route. Fill the tomb till the tomb turns womb — what goes in is not what comes out. Reap me, don't keep me. Sow me, don't show me. Bury the boy who was wanting the most. I don't want the credit, I just want to be needed — so God, let me give up the ghost. [Final Chorus - everything, then instruments falling away] Hollow me out until I'm hallowed. Break the ground, then break the grain. Take the ghost so I can hold the Ghost — what You take is all I gain. Grind me down to something needed, knead me into something fed. I don't want to be a man remembered — [Outro - one voice, suspended chord, never lands] Still I'm asking. Still I'm asking. Still I'm asking...
