05 Black Lotus

Midnight water, black and level as a floor something in the mud below is knocking at the door no one planted it, no one called it by a name it climbs the dark on one thin stem and opens all the same petals like a held breath, folded tight against the cold the moon is just a rumor that the surface never told you say a flower needs the sun, I say look where it grew the deepest part of the water is the only light it knew count the petals now one more than there should be five where there were four open, open slowly black lotus, bloom without the light I don't need the morning to open black lotus, rooted in the night and everything beneath me still feeding black lotus, no one's offering no altar, no garden, no keeper black lotus, pull the dark in some things rise because the mud is deeper the water drops a half-step and the surface starts to lean the roots are writing something that the daylight's never seen a beat goes missing somewhere and the stem does not let go whatever tried to drown me only taught me how to grow count the petals now one more than there should be five where there were four open, open slowly black lotus, bloom without the light I don't need the morning to open black lotus, rooted in the night and everything beneath me still feeding black lotus, no one's offering no altar, no garden, no keeper black lotus, pull the dark in some things rise because the mud is deeper I DID NOT ASK TO BE CLEAN I CAME UP THROUGH THE DIRT TO BE SEEN EVERY PETAL IS A CLOSED FIST OPENING LET THE WATER SAY MY NAME black lotus, open all the way I keep the mud, I keep the sky black lotus, call it what you may I was never yours to purify black lotus, drink the midnight down every root a road back to the floor black lotus, wearing no one's crown dark from the root to the petal, and awake the pond goes quiet I do not close