To Pair, Outside the Sacrament (Fornicate)

Lyrics

[Intro]
Fornix. The arch. Stone curve over Rome's night.

[Verse 1]
In 50 BCE, under the Forum Romanum's arches,
Marcus Tullius Cicero paced nearby,
age fifty, orating against moral decay.
He said, Non est ornamentum virile, sed flagitium,
fornicari sine amore.
Not manly, but disgrace, to pair without love.
The word hid in the architecture.

[Chorus]
Fornicate, from fornix, the vaulted space.
Where prostitutes stood, spring evenings, 10 degrees Celsius,
damp from the Tiber, torches flickering amber.
The act outside sacrament, bound in stone.

[Verse 2]
Juvenal wrote in Satire 3, lines 156 to 160,
sub fornice, under the arch, the euphemism clear.
Graffiti on sandstone, names scratched by clients,
CIL Volume IV records them, Prussian Academy, 1871.
Worn cloaks, faded red, smelling of myrrh diluted,
sweat and city dust.

[Bridge]
The gap: those women, nameless in records,
reduced to slurs by Martial, by elite pens.
Their voices lost, like clients' faces in the crowd.
But the arch stands, linking basilica vaults to vice.
Poetic irony, isn't it? Sacred and profane, one word.

[Verse 3]
Feel the rough sandstone, cool under fingertip,
damp mist grounding the hum of footsteps.
Garum's briny tang from vendors' stalls,
mixing with unwashed bodies, cheap lavender.
Litters pass, slaves carrying the wealthy through.

[Chorus]
Fornicate, from fornix, the vaulted space.
Where prostitutes stood, spring evenings, 10 degrees Celsius,
damp from the Tiber, torches flickering amber.
The act outside sacrament, bound in stone.

[Outro]
The dictionary keeps it. Old as Rome. Neutral now.
But remember the arch.