I watched the bride in white descend A perfect life around the bend I tipped the scale, I changed the plan A careless touch, a crashing van The groom's face was a shattered glass Where all his future came to pass That moment when his hope unspun Became my sweetest, private sun I let the ancient woman stay To watch her children fade away Now slumped beside the windowpane Her endless days are endless rain Her whispered prayers to end the night Are delicate and pure delight But why should I relieve her pain? When all her sorrow is my gain I am the scholar of your tears The only one who truly hears The music of your breaking hearts The most enchanting of the arts I am the dust, the final stone A force of nature, cold alone But in your anguish, I feel warm A temporary, fleeting storm Your mortal grief, my sacred wine A taste of something half-divine The only time I feel alive Is watching how your spirits dive The newborn's final, shallow breath The mother's cry that follows death These are the treasures I collect My lonely universe's sect I sit beside your hospital bed And gently pat your trembling head But never will I grant release While sorrow offers me such peace I am the dust, the final stone But through your pain, I'm less alone Your mortal grief, my sacred wine That makes my empty purpose shine The only time I feel I'm real Is witnessing how humans feel This bittersweet and dark design That makes their suffering seem like mine So weep for me, my darling ones Beneath life's cold and distant suns Your tears are all that I can taste In this eternal, cold waste...
