BABEL

Before the word Before the wound There was a mouth And a locked room Before the name Before the blame There was a sound Still changing shape I built a tower out of every sentence I swallowed Brick by brick with a throat full of borrowed tomorrow Put a flag on the top that said I am fine While the basement kept flooding in a language like mine I said peace, you heard permission I said help, you heard condition I said wait, you heard rejection I said nothing, you made a religion Every syllable split in the air Every vowel came back with teeth I kept trying to make a bridge You kept making a courtroom seat I did not ask for perfect words I asked for one unguarded line You gave me smoke in formal clothes And called the shape divine I heard the panic under it I heard the child in the steel I heard the wound mispronounce itself And still I called it real Say it clean It bends again Say it plain It leaves the pen I mean one thing You make it two We built a room the truth fell through Babel We built heaven out of noise Called it love until the language Put a knife inside the voice Babel If you hear me through the fall I am not the broken signal I am someone in the call Babel Break the tower, spare the tongue Let the ruins learn our names Before the silence calls us done I said stay I heard leave I said breathe I heard bleed I said love I heard debt We are not finished misunderstanding yet Now every room got subtitles, every face got a trial Every pause got a profile, every grief got style They quote what you said when your hands were shaking Ignore what it cost you to stay awake then Call it confession when the fear starts leaking Call it attention when the hurt starts speaking I got fluent in defense You got fluent in doubt We made knives out of grammar Then complained about the mouths I got tired of translating All the blood behind your calm Tired of being made the enemy For reading what was wrong But I am guilty too, I know it I sharpened half your name I heard thunder in your whisper And answered it with flame Say it once It doubles back Say it soft It still attacks I reach for you I brace for proof The same old fear keeps changing roofs Maybe language is a house With too many locked doors Maybe every hurt arrives Wearing someone else’s voice Maybe I was not your enemy Just the shape your fear could see Maybe I was not your answer Just a wound that learned to plead If I say I am sorry Will the room believe the sound If you say you are staying Will my body come back down If we kneel inside the dust And stop building upward Can a broken word be honest Can a broken throat be trusted I meant it, bent it, sent it through static Dressed up the panic till the damage looked dramatic I heard the fracture, I heard the flood I heard the meaning choking under blood I made a tower I made a wall I made excuses I made them fall We made a language out of fear And still somehow we both stayed here Say my name I will not turn it Say your hurt I will not burn it Say the truth Even if it breaks Let it break in both our names Babel We built heaven out of noise Called it love until the language Put a knife inside the voice Babel If you hear me through the fall I am not the broken signal I am someone in the call Babel Break the tower, spare the tongue Let the ruins learn our names Before the silence calls us done Babel Not a curse and not a crown Just two voices in the ruins Trying not to lose the sound Before the word Before the wound We are still here In the same room Say it slowly I will try One true syllable Before goodbye