Every Yes and No

Lyrics

Three thousand meters down.
Here on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Your whole life in a paper folder.
The pressure crushed it in a second.

They called you Flat Soda Sam.
In the cellars of Champagne, you’d hold the flute to the light.
Judge the bead, the mousse, the fine explosion on the tongue.
And then go home to something still.
Something quiet.
All the pressure tasted, none of it swallowed.
You saved the real pressure for this folder.

Every letter that began “We regret to inform you…”
Every thin envelope with a single, joyful page.
The university that said no in 1977.
The job you didn’t get.
The first girl who laughed.
And then the yes. The yes from the bank.
The yes on a postcard, signed with a single initial.
All of it sank right here.

You gave the paper to the water.
You gave the ink to the dark.
Where the black smokers build chimneys from the planet’s heat.
Was it the weight of the yes? Or the sting of the no?
Which rejection was the one?
The one that forced the change?
Which 'no' was the bubble that finally made you rise?

Here, bacteria spin metallic lace from sulfur.
Life that doesn't need the sun.
It eats the poison. It builds on the heat.
It thrives on the pressure that would kill the rest of us.
You knew this place, didn't you, Sam?
A landscape made of every hard limit.
A world built from things that can't be done.

The folder is gone.
The ink is a ghost in the current.
Only the question remains.
Floating in the cold, dark water.
Down here with the things that grow without light.
Which 'no' was the bubble that made you?