[Verse 1] I keep the things I use the most A little closer to the edge Coffee, plates, the heavy pan Anything I'd have to stretch to get I brace my hands against my thighs To pull the laundry from the heat I don't remember choosing this My body figured it out for me [Refrain] How long before a thing you learn Becomes the way you move? How long before you stop remembering What taught it to you? [Verse 2] Four years and I can breathe just fine Until the stairs get steep The muscle came back differently The ache stayed underneath My immune system learned new tricks And some of them are bad It's strange what keeps on happening After the danger's passed [Refrain] How long before a thing you learn Becomes the way you move? How long before you stop remembering What taught it to you? [Instrumental] [Verse 3] I know my mother's posture too Though hers is harder to explain The way a room could change its weather Before anybody raised their voice She learned to read it somewhere else Before she taught the skill to me And someone taught the one who taught her Farther back than I can see [Refrain] How long before a thing you learn Becomes the way you move? How long before you stop remembering What taught it to you? [Verse 4] The sequence isn't destiny Expression answers circumstance A switch gets thrown, a signal quiets The organism learns its chance And I keep wondering what we're seeing When the pattern reappears How much belongs to who we are And how much to what happened here [Instrumental] [Bridge] Maybe that's why I keep looking When there's something split apart Why an open wound is awful And impossible not to watch For once the hidden architecture Has risen close enough to see Muscle, blood, connective tissue All the things that carry me Pain is information So is where I put my weight So is everything I reach for Everything I rearrange Every small accommodation Made so gradually it disappears Until the shape a wound required Becomes the shape you recognize [Refrain] How long before a thing you learn Becomes the way you move? How long before you stop remembering What taught it to you? How long before a thing you carry Feels like something you were born to? How far back would I have to look To find what taught us how to move? [Outro] I keep the things I use the most A little closer to the edge I brace my hands against my thighs And don't think anything of it Most days.
