The Elements, Vol 1 · Track 13 · middle

Arsenic

Sung BY the element Arsenic (symbol As, atomic number 33), in FIRST PERSON — a character with a fear, a vanity, or a secret. Write ORIGINAL lyrics TRUE to this specific element's real chemistry, history and place in the world: the inheritance powder, the poisoner's darling of a hundred Victorian parlors — tasteless, patient, and polite; 'Arsenic and Old Lace,' the elderberry wine, the widow's little secret. Play it as a genteel wink. NOT a generic 'I am an element' — find what is uniquely, specifically true of Arsenic. Clean, DistroKid/YouTube-safe. Register to the character.

Lyrics

They draw the velvet curtains.
They pour the elderberry wine.
A difficult relation has overstayed their time.
They need a quiet usher, a problem to untwine.
And so, they invite me in.

I am the guest you never see.
The sugar that won't sweeten your tea.
A whisper in the claret, entirely blame-free.
The doctor calls it winter cholera, a touch of gastritis.
A terrible decree.
No one ever thinks to look for me.

They call me Inheritance Powder.
A discreet and final friend.
I am the polite solution when patience has to end.
A little grey compassion, for a fortune to descend.
Just a pinch.
A perfect, tasteless, odorless godsend.

I was the green on the paper on the parlor walls.
A beautiful, slow vapor before the curtain falls.
They prescribed me in a bottle, to answer nature's calls.
In Styria, they ate me, defying all the squalls.
I answer when one calls.

They call me Inheritance Powder.
A discreet and final friend.
I am the polite solution when patience has to end.
A little grey compassion, for a fortune to descend.
Just a pinch.
A perfect, tasteless, odorless godsend.

But then came Mister Marsh in 1836.
With his zinc and his glass tube, and his clever little tricks.
He could find my faintest shadow, my alchemical fix.
A silver mirror on the cold glass.
The trial of Marie Lafarge in 1840. The end of politics.

My parlor days are over.
The modern world is crass.
But remember me when you require a solution... with class.
Au revoir.