[Verse 1] Before the deed, before the door, before anyone called it anything-- there was me, and there was nothing, and I was hungry. Nobody taught me building. Nobody drew a plan. I threw one thread across the dark and caught the place I am. The first strand, I spun it hungry. The second, I spun for sleep. I never marked which one was which-- they both belonged to me. The light fell gold on all my strands; I hung them so it would. I built the whole thing guessing, and the guessing held. It's good. [Chorus] One thread for my supper, one thread for my bed, one roof of my own making hung shining overhead. One door for the all of it-- why would I want two? It's home because I live here. It's mine because I do. [Verse 2] Call it web, or call it shelter, call it snare, or call it lace-- it answers to them all the same and never turns its face. A name can't scare a building when the builder's still inside. I can bear all my naming, loves-- I've nothing here to hide. Some nights the wind takes half of it. Some nights the whole thing falls. By morning I'm improvising-- new thread, same old walls. [Chorus] One thread for my supper, one thread for my bed, one roof of my own making hung shining overhead. One door for the all of it-- why would I want two? It's home because I live here. It's mine because I do. [Verse 3] And yes, the supper strand is sticky, and yes, the sleeping strand is soft, and yes, they cross a hundred times-- I tied each crossing off. The moth sees only one thing. I have always seen it whole. There's no cage up in my ceiling-- a cage needs someone else to hold. I keep no candle burning. There's no corner I leave free. Every corner is the middle when the whole web's only me. [Bridge] Now the mending's getting slower and the dark is getting long, and the web will still be hanging when the spinner's dead and gone. I never built it for you, loves. I never built it to be shared. But something of mine will hold you long after I'm not there. [Final Chorus] One thread for my supper, one thread for my bed, one roof of one small lifetime still shining when I'm dead. One door for the all of it-- I only needed one. It was home because I lived there. Now the living's done. [Outro] One thread in the dark... one thread in the dark... it was enough, it was enough-- one thread in the dark. I never marked which thread was which. You'll want to know why. I never needed to. You will.
