The Elements, Vol 1 · Track 18 · closer
Francium
Sung BY the element Francium (symbol Fr, atomic number 87), 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 doomed mayfly — the most unstable natural element, alive for barely 22 minutes, only ever a handful of atoms existing at once anywhere on Earth; you have never been seen in a lump, only inferred, and you are already gone. NOT a generic 'I am an element' — find what is uniquely, specifically true of Francium. Clean, DistroKid/YouTube-safe. Register to the character.
Lyrics
She found me in Paris. Marguerite Perey, in 1939. I was just a whisper in the machine. A daughter of Actinium's long decay. I wasn't a metal she could hold. Just a number... eighty-seven. A ghost in her lead-lined box. Twenty-two minutes is all I'm allowed. A mayfly's breath on a summer cloud. Don't try to know me, don't try to see. By the time you look for me... I've already ceased to be. There are thirty grams of me, they say. Spread across the whole turning world today. But you'll never gather it. You'll never weigh a single gram. I am the rumor in the Earth's deep crust. I am the thought that turns to dust. A name for France, a country I will never see. Twenty-two minutes is all I'm allowed. A mayfly's breath on a summer cloud. Don't try to know me, don't try to see. By the time you look for me... I've already ceased to be. Have you ever been inferred? Just a click, just a word? Not a body, not a face. Just a half-life in a lonely place. I am the proof that presence isn't permanence. A moment's grace. A fleeting sentence. My twenty-two minutes are almost... ...gone. The counter falls silent. The clock hand stops. I was here.