[Verse 1] Red flowers in the poisoned clay Bloom where the strong were swept away A scarlet wind, a world gone grey And none who breathe can stay The swamps were thick with fevered breath Each petal kissed of rot and death The land itself had nothing left But beauty born of death [Pre-Chorus] And the air hummed low Like a prayer gone wrong Soft as a lover’s whisper Sharp as a funeral song [Chorus] Rot in bloom Scarlet and aching Rot in bloom A whole dead kingdom waking Through the swamp and fog Through the plague-perfumed gloom I saw death made lovely In the rot in bloom [Verse 2] Caelid wept through twisted roots Through broken towers and sunken boots Where soldiers sank and vultures stooped And madness fed the mute Each blossom shone with cruel delight A tender wound in ruined light As if some god in endless spite Had taught decay to shine [Pre-Chorus] For the rot did not come raging It came like a kiss at dawn Soft and bright and slow Till all the flesh was gone [Chorus] Rot in bloom Scarlet and aching Rot in bloom A whole dead kingdom waking Through the swamp and fog Through the plague-perfumed gloom I saw death made lovely In the rot in bloom [Bridge] Somewhere beneath that crimson veil A memory still moved pale Of blade and bloom Of pride and doom Of a war that poisoned all A goddess sleeping in the wound A curse that learned to flower soon And every scarlet petal there Fell like a silent call [Verse 3] I walked with cloth across my face Yet still I felt that slow embrace The swamp had turned to chapel space Where plague itself had grace No battle cry, no trumpet’s peal Just spores and silence, soft and real And every step beneath my heel Said nothing here can heal [Final Chorus] Rot in bloom Holy and obscene Rot in bloom The fairest death I’ve seen Through the drowned red earth Through the soft consuming doom I crossed a land still flowering With rot in bloom [Outro] Red flowers in the poisoned clay Still mark the ones who lost their way And all who walk where scarlet grew Leave something of themselves there too
