?Interrobang! · Track 20 · middle
One Year, and the River Took It
OBJECT (intimate, what Sisukiro found): a sobriety milestone chip with a private date. OWNER (re-linked by Sisukiro): Sober Susan — sake brewer from a Niigata brewery; note the irony of the name. FOUND AT: Son Doong, the cave that grows its own weather. THE (UN)LIKELY STORY & THE UNANSWERABLE QUESTION: Susan ferments the sake she can't drink; the cave that grows its own weather swallowed her one-year chip. What do you hold onto when you can't touch it?
Lyrics
Found it by the river. Here in Son Doong. Where the clouds are born underground. A metal disc. Thirty-four millimeters. Lighter than a key, colder than a stone. Stamped with the words 'One Year'. And a date from 2009. It belonged to Sober Susan, from the Niigata snows. I can almost feel her hands, deep in the warm, steamed rice. Smell the sweet, sharp bloom of the koji mold. The work that saves you. The work that haunts you every single day. You brew the warmth you can never swallow. You polish the grain for a clarity you swore off for good. This little coin was the proof in your pocket. Lost in a cave that grows its own weather. So what do you hold onto... when you can't touch it anymore? Did you come here to lose it? Did the mist in the chamber get so thick? Like the steam rising in the brewery, blinding you. Did the roar of the underground river sound like a craving? Did you set it on a wet limestone ledge, just for a moment? A single moment, to feel the weight of nothing in your hands. You brew the warmth you can never swallow. You polish the grain for a clarity you swore off for good. This little coin was the proof in your pocket. Lost in a cave that grows its own weather. So what do you hold onto... when you can't touch it anymore? Hyper-focused on the process. The pure snowmelt water, the perfect temperature. A ritual to replace the other one. A discipline to hold the walls in. But the river here, Susan, it doesn't care about your count. It just runs. It just takes. The river took it. Or you let it go. One year. And then the next day started. And the next. The question just hangs here. In the humidity.