[Verse 1] Once, I was a little star Or something bright enough to lie Then I fell through my own burning And woke beneath the sky The lake received me without mercy Black mouth, no ripple, no name It held me like a secret That had forgotten why it came And when I looked up for my brothers For the old familiar flame The heavens had gone empty Every light had learned my shame No constellation answered No silver animal stirred Just a sky with all its teeth pulled And the dark beneath it blurred [Pre-Chorus] I am not drowning I am not safe I am the fallen thing The water would not take [Chorus] I fell into the starless lake Looked up and the stars were gone No map above, no floor below No place I still belonged I fell into the starless lake Black water, open ache I am not drowning, I am floating And floating is the break [Verse 2] Somewhere on the ruined shoreline They gather lanterns in their hands They call me by my earth-name Like a spell the lake understands They throw ropes made out of morning They throw blankets, prayers, and heat They keep finding pieces of me Washed up where I cannot reach But I am out here full of sky-loss With no heaven left to prove A star is not a star down here Just a wound that learned to move I want to want the living world The cups, the doors, the floor But I have lost the law of rising I don’t know up anymore [Pre-Chorus] I am not leaving I am not found I am the fallen thing That never touched the ground [Chorus] I fell into the starless lake Looked up and the stars were gone No map above, no floor below No place I still belonged I fell into the starless lake Black water, open ache I am not drowning, I am floating And floating is the break [Bridge] Do not blame the lantern-bearers Do not say their love was small They are calling from the shoreline With every name they know to call But what can hands do for a star That cannot remember height? What can warmth do for a body That has mistaken itself for night? There is a missing in the water There is a silence with my face There is a piece of me below me Sinking through a doorless place If the sky had stayed above me Maybe I would know the way But I fell and when I surfaced Even heaven looked away [Final Chorus] I fell into the starless lake Looked up and the stars were gone No map above, no floor below No place I still belonged I fell into the starless lake Black water, open ache I am not drowning, I am floating And floating is the break I fell into the starless lake No witness, no flame They are trying to put me back together But the missing has my name [Outro] Once, I was a little star Or something bright enough to lie Now I float in the starless lake And cannot teach myself the sky
