Selenium

Lyrics

I am the line.
The margin of error.
The single grain on the apothecary's scale.
You need me. 
But you must not need me too much.

In the poor soil of Keshan County, they learned my worth by my absence.
A silence in the earth, a hollow in the heart.
A child's breath catches, a cardiac muscle weakens.
I am the ghost they searched for in the rice, the vital trace.
The essential part that makes the engine turn, then holds its pace.

They call me the steady hand, the measured pour.
The knife-edge difference between the medicine and the war.
Paracelsus saw my soul in 1538.
I am the dose. I am the gate.
Your breakfast friend, your final plate.

On the Great Plains, the horses staggered blind.
Their hair fell out, their hooves cracked from behind.
Alkali disease, a devil in the dust.
Jöns Berzelius found me in the reddish rust
Left in a lead-lined room in Gripsholm, born of industrial lust.
Exhale my excess: dimethyl selenide.
A hint of garlic on your breath. Nowhere left to hide.

They call me the steady hand, the measured pour.
The knife-edge difference between the medicine and the war.
Paracelsus saw my soul in 1538.
I am the dose. I am the gate.
Your breakfast friend, your final plate.

Tellurium claimed the Earth, so I claimed the Moon.
My name is Selene, beneath the afternoon.
I clarify the glass in your window pane.
I conduct myself differently in sun and rain.
A current quickens when the light explains me.

They call me the steady hand, the measured pour.
The knife-edge difference between the medicine and the war.
Paracelsus saw my soul in 1538.
I am the dose. I am the gate.
Your breakfast friend, your final plate.

How many Brazil nuts today?
One for your health.
Two for the fall.
The tightrope is so very narrow.
And I am watching you all.