Permission Not Granted (Giordano Bruno)"

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
You said
the stars
were other suns
in fifteen eighty-four
and each sun
had its own worlds
circling it
and the universe
was not a closed room
with a ceiling painted
by a landlord
but an open field
that tasted like
cold struck flint
and went
in every direction
without stopping
and without
asking
the landlord's
permission.

[Verse 2]
The Inquisition
gave you
eight years
to take it back.
Eight years
in a cell
that smelled
like the slow
yellow patience
of men
who believe
the ceiling
is the point
and you sat
in the cell
for eight years
and you did not
take it back
because the field
was still there
outside the ceiling
and the field
did not require
your recantation
to continue
being a field.

[Chorus]
They burned you
in the Campo de' Fiori
on Ash Wednesday
in sixteen hundred
and before
they lit the fire
they offered you
a crucifix
and you
turned your face away
and the face
you turned away
is the face
the statue
in the Campo de' Fiori
is still wearing
four hundred
and twenty-six years later
and the face
is not afraid
and the face
is not angry
and the face
is the particular
expression
of a man
whose prefrontal cortex
has already
finished
the calculation
and is simply
waiting
for the rest
of the room
to catch up.

[Outro]
The stars
are other suns.
Each sun
has its own worlds
circling it.
The universe
goes
in every direction
without stopping.
You were right
about all of it
and the fire
was wrong
about all of it
and the fire
went out
in sixteen hundred
and the field
is still
going.

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