Mille Soupirs Parfaits I

Lyrics

[Intro]
(a double inhale — recorded, real, close to the mic)
(then the long exhale — and on the exhale, a harp note, riding the air out)
(piano follows the shape of the lungs, not a metronome)

[Verse 1 — Sisukiro]
(PLAIN + NEURO)
The physiological sigh
Is a double inhale and a long release
The alveoli that collapsed under the weight
Of twenty-three songs of paying attention
Reopen like a bakery at dawn
And the release carries out
The carbon dioxide
And the particular residue
Of a morning spent
Being a body

This is the first sigh
Of a thousand
And the first is always a promise
That the diaphragm makes
To the vagus nerve
Without consulting anyone

[Verse 2 — Orikusis]
(her voice, low, the village present)
(TYPHON + SYN)
Tôi thở ra — I exhale
And the exhale fills a corridor
In the ribcage
That was furnished with the day's wrong temperatures
And the corridor empties
And the emptying
Has the colour of unbleached linen
Held to a window
Where the afternoon
Is deciding whether to forgive you

Một nghìn — a thousand
Mỗi tiếng thở dài là một phong bì
Each sigh is an envelope
The diaphragm addresses
To no one in particular
And the postage is free
And the contents are the weight
You didn't know you were carrying
Until the carrying stopped

[Chorus — Both]
(building gently — strings, harp, piano, both voices)
(ATA + SIGHS)
Mille soupirs parfaits, mille soupirs parfaits
The vagus nerve's opening statement
Mille soupirs parfaits, mille soupirs parfaits
A lease agreement between the lungs
And the afternoon
Notarized by the parasympathetic system
Whose office hours
Are whenever you remember
To let the air
Leave

[Bridge — Both]
(stripped to voices only — the simplest moment)
(PLAIN)
This is the overture
The second sigh will be a rest
The third will be the full release
But this one — the first —
Is just the promise

That somewhere between
The boulangerie and the chromosome
There will be enough air
To say what the body spent
Twenty-three songs learning:

That the exhale
Is not the giving up
The exhale
Is the evidence
That the inhale
Was worth it

[Outro — Both]
(the double inhale returns — then the long exhale, both voices sighing together, almost synchronized, not quite)
Mille soupirs parfaits
(whispered, both)
The first
(harp — one note, riding the air out)
(accordion holds one warm chord — the Volume I chord)
(silence)

(spoken softly:)
Fin de l'Acte III — Le Corps