A road curling gold through a world I don’t know With towers in the distance and rivers below No keeper to question each place that I go No hand on my shoulder, no chain in tow The air has a rhythm, the ground has a voice A thousand strange doorways, a thousand new choices I ought to be singing how lucky I am But the dark in this world doesn’t know who I am Back home every shadow would rise at my word Here darkness is stubborn and slightly absurd Each spell needs a vessel, a trinket, a cost And half of my useful supplies have been lost All mine someday Every whisper, every wave All mine someday Every drop I learn to save I could bottle this lovely place Every ember, every trace Oh, what a beautiful world it would be If all of it answered to me A swordsman is splitting a boulder in two A mage wears a halo of violet-blue That healer has sunlight alive in her veins Imagine the yield if I had her remains As magical ingredients. Obviously. They glitter with power from shoulders to soles I wonder what pours from the seams of their souls I’d harvest a thimble, perhaps even more They would kick my ass through a wall. Moving on. What creature is that at the edge of the green? The grandest and strangest that I’ve ever seen Those horns could hold curses, that hide could hold heat I wonder what treasures are packed underneath I’d crack through its breastbone and reach through the red Pull out the heart while it hammered and bled Drain every vessel, scrape marrow from bone Seal up the organs and claim them my own Its lungs for a tempest, its blood for a blight Its eyes for a charm that can pierce through the night Coil every entrail and harvest its hide Then bottle the last little tremor inside …It would absolutely kill me. Anyway. All mine someday Every whisper, every wave All mine someday Every drop I learn to save I could bottle this lovely place Every ember, every trace Oh, what a bottomless world this could be If all of it answered to me I don’t want a sample I don’t want a share I want every current Running everywhere I want the heat in the bodies The pull in the tide The charge in the storm cloud The dark deep inside No more little portions No scraping the glass No counting each curse And just hoping it lasts I’ll drain every garden Each river and vein Then cork up the thunder And swallow the rain Give me the power, all of the power Pull it from root, rib, ruin, and tower Cork it and stack it from ceiling to floor Mine for the using and mine evermore Give me the power, all of it now Let every shadow remember to bow Never small again, never undone I’ll own every ounce when the harvesting’s done Take it Drain it Name it Save it Cork it Seal it Stack it Claim it Every bright body and beast I can find Every deep current will end up as mine Nothing can strand me or leave me too small Give me enough and I’ll swallow it all All of the power! All of it mine! Every last drop By the end of the night! Across in the courtyard, they quarrel, they train They fall in the dirt and get upright again They laugh like the evening was made for their song Each leaves with somebody when daylight is gone I have my bottles, my bag, and my plans A talent for darkness that nobody understands Back home I was certain, important, and known And now I am walking this strange place alone A shelf full of power won’t answer me back No hand on my shoulder when something attacks I hate to admit where this wandering ends… I guess I need some friends.
