I think I created at least maybe five songs for Teemuth's Love at First Fright challenge. I've been tossing up between this one and the one I'm actually going to enter, wasn't an easy choice. Might end up just releasing all five as an EP. ────────────────────────────────── They taught me heaven had a narrow door, cold stone underneath my knees, said if I made myself small enough some mercy might come down to me. Then you put your hand against my neck, not asking me to bow my head, and somehow being held by you felt kinder than the prayers I said. I know the names they give to you, I know what your hands have done. Still, you never asked me to pretend that fear and love were one. So let the righteous bar the gate, I know the shelter that I choose. I found my Sanctuary where I had everything to lose. Hold me close, and let me stay beneath your wings, beneath your wings. You would not kneel to heaven’s throne, or wear obedience like a chain. You made a home beyond their walls for every soul they could not name. And I have seen the edge in you, the part that does not turn away, but when your fingers cross my cheek you touch me softly anyway. Maybe that should frighten me. Some nights, I think it does. But I have known more cruelty from men who called it love. So let the righteous bar the gate, I know the shelter that I choose. I found my Sanctuary where I had everything to lose. Hold me close, and let me stay beneath your wings, beneath your wings. If loving you should cost my name, then let me hear the price aloud. If they turn their faces when I pass, I will not beg them back around. I know you are no innocent, and neither is the choice I make. Let every shining gate stay closed, I know the shelter that I choose. You are my Sanctuary, and I have counted what I lose. I come to you with open eyes, beneath your wings, beneath your wings. Let them call it fall or wound, let them say I’ve wandered through. I was never more myself than when I freely came to you. So hold me close; I choose my place beneath your wings, beneath your wings. No throne above, no fear below. Beneath your wings... Let the righteous seal their shining gates, there’s nowhere else I’d rather go. Beneath your wings... Not for pardon, not for peace. Just to rest against the hand that never asked on bended knee. My mother. My ruin. My sanctuary.
