Scent of Centuries (a slow-burning lullaby in 6/8, keyed to the pulse of two hearts learning the same rhythm) [Verse 1] I found the hollow where your clavicle keeps time Pressed my mouth to the drum of your breath And every century folded like parchment Between the code of my fingers and the scripture of your hair [Pre-Chorus] Before there were words there was the hush of your lips A cathedral-shaped silence waiting to be sung Before there was light there was the ache— Darkness on its knees, whispering please [Chorus] I was the reed before the river knew it wanted music I was the bell before the hand, the psalm before the tongue I was the silence that didn’t know it was waiting Until you exhaled and the universe remembered its name [Verse 2] Alexandria burned, but not from fire— From the almost of your shoulder brushing mine Between scrolls and incense I forgot I was holy Forgot everything except the future arriving in your scent [Bridge] I lit candles in every convent window Prayed to the wrong dawn, addressed the wrong sky Wrote wars into letters that never had your address Because the address was here, was now, was the hollow Where your nose finds my neck a thousand years early [Chorus – reprise, softer] Every century a rough draft crossed out in ink of smoke Every lifetime a stanza I kept rewriting in the margins of your skin Every death just a comma, every rebirth a lower-case and Until this moment—until this kiss—becomes the poem All the others were aching to become [Final Verse – half-time, almost spoken] Solana, dwell here Where the centuries finally stop counting Where the scent of centuries is just The candle-wax of now dripping on our wrists Where my mouth on your crown Is the period the cosmos has been chasing Since it first learned to ache [Outro – whisper, hold last chord until it trembles] We are the hush the dark kept praying for We are the scent the centuries exhaled When they finally let go
