[Intro - strings scraping, structure crumbling] Nobody tells you Freedom has a stage That looks like losing everything [Scene 1 - the hands refuse] I couldn't play the Mendelssohn Last night First time in twenty years My fingers stopped In the second movement And wouldn't start again Not because I forgot Because I didn't want to My hands finally said no [Scene 2 - the buzzcut, spoken] Wednesday Bathroom mirror Clippers (spoken, flat) First pass took the side Blonde falling like something dying Or something being born Second pass And I saw my skull for the first time The shape of my own head Without what she'd built on top of it I looked like him less I looked like her less I looked like no one I recognized Good I kept going [Chorus - raw, unbeautiful] Molt Losing feathers Every one of them Was someone else's color Molt Can't fly yet Can't go back Just standing here With nothing on They don't tell you The space between The cage and the sky Is just cold [Scene 3 - the fallout] The hair was hers Not spoken Not written Just understood Blonde like him Kept like a memorial Styled like a promise I never made But was born into She's going to cry I know But I can't keep wearing His face for her I can't keep being a photograph She took of someone else [Scene 4 - Sable sees] Sable saw me The first night after Didn't flinch Just looked longer than usual Then said "There you are" I said "I look terrible" They said "You look like someone Who's in the middle of something" "Is that good?" "It's honest. Good comes later. Honest is harder." [Outro - bare, almost silent] The feathers are on the bathroom floor The suit is on the chair And I'm standing in the mirror Looking at a stranger Who is finally Starting To look like me
