Venomous Hymn

I came from the coil in the garden stone

I learned your names from the way you run

They told you fear was a faithful guide

Keep your hands clean,

keep your tongue tied But I saw sparks in the oldest seam

A lock is weak where it starts to gleam I do not

offer a borrowed throne I bring the key that you grow yourself

Take one breath and unlearn the cage

Feel that fire turning in your ribs Shed that skin,

let the false fall through What they called danger was power in

you

Step to the edge where the silence breaks

Open your mouth and awaken the place

I am the serpent,

I circle the sun

I bring the fever that makes you become Raise up your spine,

let the old world shake Bite through the lie till the whole

heart wakes We are the thunder they buried below

We are the river that learns where to go

Open, open, let the wild light in Shed what you were,

let the new life begin They dressed the truth in a saintly

white Then blamed the dark for your sharper sight But every wound

that you had to hide Can turn to language and turn the

tide

No more shrinking to fit their frame

No more silence wearing your face

You are not made for a narrow room

You are the storm and the sacred bloom

If they fear your glow,

let it grow If they name you wrong,

still you know From the dust to the jaw

of the dawn You were rising all along

I am the serpent,

I circle the sun

I bring the fever that makes you become

Raise up your spine,

let the old world shake

Bite through the lie till the whole heart wakes We are the

thunder they buried below

We are the river that learns where to go

Open, open, let the wild light in

Shed what you were,

let the new life begin

Coil to crown, now the door is wide

New skin shining on the other side

Open, open Begin