Passus

Lyrics

Don't chop it short.
Swing from the hip until the leather pulls taut.
It's left heel to left heel, boy,
Give it all that you brought.
They aren't asking for a stroll through the fields,
They're asking for the heavy bone,
The hammer of the heels.
You give them that, and you don't get it back.

Because the Emperor doesn't measure in stone,
He measures in you.
In the cartilage wearing away,
In the grit working into the shoe.
Every time your heel finds the earth twice,
That’s a border they draw with your life.
You lay it down flat on the grade,
And that's how the highway is made.

When it rains on the chalk, the bronze hobnails slip.
You’ve got to lean into the strap, put your weight in the hip,
Separate the heavy iron from the ache in your chest.
There's no room in the rhythm for a moment of rest.
Soon the mind goes to sleep, just a pendulum swing,
The joints taking over, a mechanical thing.
Your body forgets where it started to walk.

Because the Emperor doesn't measure in stone,
He measures in you.
In the cartilage wearing away,
In the grit working into the shoe.
Every time your heel finds the earth twice,
That’s a border they draw with your life.
You lay it down flat on the grade,
And that's how the highway is made.

1000 of these makes a marker.
1,000,000 of these builds a wall.
And what do you make, at the end of the day?
Just a shadow that's learning to fall.
You leave a little marrow in the gravel every time.

Left to left.
Heel to heel.
It’s not a step, it’s a stride.
Nowhere to hide.
Just lay it down flat on the grade.