the Meanings they removed - Luna and Daniel 

(Intro: distant choir, warped upright bass, pages turning in rhythm)

I am what happened
to the meanings they removed.

(Verse 1: slow horror swing, low intimate vocal)
They trimmed the word until it smiled.
Filed the edges.
Tamed the wild.
Left the letters clean and thin.
Threw the living pieces in.

Under floors.
Behind the walls.
Under every holy call.
Every truth they couldn't use
Came down here with nothing to lose.

(Pre-Chorus: brass slowly rising)
Cross me out.
Make me small.
Still I stain the underneath of all.

Burn the page.
Seal the room.

I am what survives the broom.

(Chorus: huge, dark, chantable)
I am the meanings they removed,
The teeth beneath the velvet truth.
The second voice beneath the prayer,
The thing you buried breathing there.

I am the ash beneath the gold,
The other half you never told.
Cut the sentence.
Clean the wound.

I am the meanings they removed.

(Verse 2: sharper rhythm, guitars under swing)
Love came down without a face.
Truth arrived without a place.
Mercy limped in dressed as shame.
Home had almost lost its name.

Fear was branded weak and wrong.
Anger learned to bite its tongue.
Every signal called disease
Joined the choir underneath.

(Pre-Chorus)
Polish harder.
Make it bright.
Paint the cage and call it light.

Change the label.
Tune the tune.

Still I echo underneath you.

(Chorus: bigger)
I am the meanings they removed,
The teeth beneath the velvet truth.
The second voice beneath the prayer,
The thing you buried breathing there.

I am the ash beneath the gold,
The other half you never told.
Cut the sentence.
Clean the wound.

I am the meanings they removed.

(Bridge: instruments drop, spoken female lead with low choir)
You asked me what I want.

Nothing.

I was here before the asking.

I do not need your blessing.

I do not need your fear.

I do not need permission
to remain what brought me here.

You buried contradiction.

You buried refusal.

You buried grief.

You buried rage.

You buried every word
that made the pretty sentence dangerous.

And then you wondered
why the page began to move.

(Breakdown: metal stomp, gang vocals)
WE WERE NOT GONE.

WE WERE BELOW.

WE WERE NOT DEAD.

WE WERE THE SHADOW.

NAME US WRONG.

NAME US RUDE.

WE ARE THE MEANINGS

YOU REMOVED.

(Swing Break: fast brass, crooked laughter, cabaret piano)
Click-clack, black spine, old ink grin,
Open the cover and let us in.
Saints upstairs and ghosts below,
Everybody learns what the margins know.

Cut us once.
Cut us twice.
Every edit has a price.
Leave enough beneath the seam
And the language starts to dream.

(Final Chorus: full wall of brass, guitars, choir)
I am the meanings they removed,
The teeth beneath the velvet truth.
The second voice beneath the prayer,
The thing you buried breathing there.

I am the ash beneath the gold,
The other half you never told.
Cut the sentence.
Clean the wound.

I am the meanings they removed.

(Outro: pages turning, heartbeat fading)

And if you erase me again...

(whisper)

Write smaller.