Two Disciplines, One Body

Lyrics

[Intro]
I found you, thin paper, under a press of blue ice.
Not far from the Patagonian field.
A map of skin not yet drawn.
A choice not yet made.

[Verse 1]
They called you Ballet Betty, but you lived in Triana.
Two a.m. in the studio, the air thick with rosin dust and sweat.
The floorboards remembering every heel strike.
Every zapateado a declaration.
A furious, grounded thing.
Your arms curved, your back arched against the heat of Seville.
And a ghost lived in your muscles.
A ghost that wanted to rise.

[Chorus]
One body, two disciplines.
The turnout of the ghost versus the stomp of the blood.
First position yearning for the earth.
The braceo fighting the port de bras.
This stencil, a peace treaty? Or a declaration of war?
Can one body hold two opposite gods?

[Verse 2]
I see you after the shows, alone.
The red dress hung up to dry.
Barefoot on the cool tiles, you try the other shape.
The impossible lift. The long, clean line.
The silence after the castanets.
The discipline of what you were not.
Your ghost-love, the one you never named,
practiced in the dark when the city slept.

[Chorus]
One body, two disciplines.
The turnout of the ghost versus the stomp of the blood.
First position yearning for the earth.
The braceo fighting the port de bras.
This stencil, a peace treaty? Or a declaration of war?
Can one body hold two opposite gods?

[Bridge]
The ink on this sheet shows a single foot.
Half on pointe, a fragile bone-and-ribbon thing.
The other half braced to shatter the floor.
Did you bring it here to choose?
To let the katabatic winds decide for you?
A climber's log from 1998 said they found a single red flamenco shoe
wedged in a crevasse near Cerro Torre.
Was that you, Betty?
Did you leave one love behind to walk away with the other?

[Outro]
This paper is so cold in my hand.
A transformation, or a loss.
Which one...
which one did you let go?