Le Sablier

Lyrics

[Intro]
(the sound of sand falling — not through an hourglass but through something larger, something geological)
(distorted bass drone — low, tectonic, the millstone beginning to turn)
(drums enter — slow, heavy, each hit arriving late, as if the drummer has forgotten why he's counting)

[Verse 1]
The hourglass was a gift
From someone whose name has the consistency
Of a rumor that's been left in the rain
I've been turning it over since before glass was invented
Which means for a while I was just holding sand
In my hands
And watching it leave
With the quiet entitlement
Of a guest who was never actually invited
But who brought wine
And the wine was time
And the time was adequate
And the adequate was the cruelest thing
Anyone has ever poured

[Pre-Chorus]
(cello drone deepens, the grinding intensifying)
They say I heal things
Time heals all wounds — that's the brochure
But I don't heal anything
I just keep going until the wound
Is no longer the most interesting thing
In the room

That's not healing
That's interior decorating

[Chorus]
(heavy — drums grinding, bass distorted, the weight of epochs)
Le sablier, le sablier
The sand falls and the sand doesn't care
Le sablier, le sablier
I've been turning this glass since before the glass was there
Time doesn't heal — time buries
Time doesn't mend — time moves the furniture
Around the hole in the floor
And eventually you stop noticing the hole
And you call that a cure

And the cure has the half-life
Of everything I've ever held

[Verse 2]
(just voice and detuned piano — intimate, crumbling)
The telomeres are shortening
I can hear them from here
The little caps on the chromosomes
Fraying like the cuffs of a suit
That was beautiful once
And has been worn to every funeral since the Carboniferous

Every cell division costs a bead
From the telomere rosary
And when the beads are gone
The cell looks at itself and says
Ah — so this is what they meant
By the end of the sentence

(beat)

I used to think the end was dramatic
I used to think there'd be a door
But the end is just the telomere
Running out of floor

And the cell sits down
The way a very old man sits down
Not because he's chosen to
But because standing
Has quietly
Withdrawn its application

[Pre-Chorus]
(drums heavier, the grinding almost painful)
They put me on motivational posters
"Time is precious"
"Make the most of your time"
As if I were a resource and not a condition
As if the sand were a gift and not a fine

I am not precious
I am not a gift
I am what happens to things
When they are left in a room
Long enough
To forget
That the room
Was supposed to be temporary

[Chorus]
(the fullest, heaviest arrangement — the grunge ballad at its darkest)
Le sablier, le sablier
The sand falls and the sand doesn't care
Le sablier, le sablier
I've been turning this glass since before the glass was there
Time doesn't heal — time buries
Time doesn't mend — time moves the furniture
Around the hole in the floor
And eventually you stop noticing the hole
And you call that a cure

And the cure has the half-life
Of everything I've ever held

[Bridge]
(everything drops — just voice and the sound of sand falling)
(the quietest, most vulnerable Chronos has been since Aphantasia)
I turned the hourglass tonight
And watched the sand fall
And for the first time in eleven billion years
I didn't count the grains

I just watched

(long pause — just sand)

And the sand had the color
Of every beach I've ever been to
And every beach has the consistency
Of a promise made by a body
That didn't check with the bones first

And I thought — what if I just
Didn't turn it over this time

What if I let the last grain fall
And then just
Sat here
In the empty glass
With nothing left to measure

(silence — the sand has stopped)

And the silence had the weight
Of a room that has finally been told
It was never temporary
It was always the whole house
And the house was always
Just a room
With ideas above its station

(distorted bass returns — but softer now, almost tender)

I turned it over
Of course I turned it over
That's the job
The grind
The mill
The sablier

But for a moment — un moment —
The sand was still
And the still was the most expensive thing
I've ever owned
And I couldn't keep it
Because keeping is what I do
And the keeping is the problem

(drums return — slow, resigned, the grinding resuming)

[Outro]
(the grinding slowly winds down — not stopping, never stopping, just getting quieter)
Le sablier, le sablier
(gravelly, barely audible, exhausted)
The sand falls
The sand falls
The sand
(the last word dissolving into the sound of sand)
(sand falling — getting quieter)
(quieter)
(and underneath the sand — very faintly — the lullaby from Song 60 beginning)
(the Hypnic Jerk's celeste melody, heard through Chronos's sand like light through a crack)
(Chronos doesn't hear it — but the listener does)
(the sand continues falling as the album moves on without him)