Katana

Lyrics

[Intro]


[Verse 1]
You tap the white powder down my spine.
A dusting of chalk, a heavy drop of oil.
You hold me like a relic, half-divine,
Afraid to let the acid of your skin spoil
The finish. I am 900 grams of sleeping curve,
Held to the hilt by one bamboo peg.
You praise the temper line, the iron's nerve,
But you don't know the bodies at my edge.

[Chorus]
I was born in a starving, desperate fire,
Folded in the charcoal and the clay.
Now I am just a quiet man's desire,
Polished clean of what I used to weigh.

This is the terror of the perfect gloss:
To be a mirror for a gentle room.
To be an altar, to be a loss,
And never a wound.

[Verse 2]
400 years ago, a hand reached down,
And before the fingers closed, we were one limb.
No hesitation in the fading town,
Just the heavy, breathing arc of the swing.
I miss the jarring resistance of the bone,
The shocking warmth across my frozen cheek.
Now I rest upon a lacquered throne,
Listening to how the safe men speak.

[Chorus]
I was born in a starving, desperate fire,
Folded in the charcoal and the clay.
Now I am just a quiet man's desire,
Polished clean of what I used to weigh.
This is the terror of the perfect gloss:
To be a mirror for a gentle room.
To be an altar, to be a loss,
And never a wound.

[Bridge]
Rub me down. Wipe the metal bare.
Admire the grain that the hammer made.
You look at the surface and see your own face there.
You forgot I was a blade.

[Outro]
Put me back in the silk brocade.
Tie the cord.
Turn out the light.
I am so sharp, I am so afraid
That I will sleep through every single night,
Perfect,
And untouched.