Bismuth

Lyrics

They gather in the parlor.
My cousins. My kin.
Lead in his heavy chair. Polonium with her thin smile.
The halogen hiss. The radioactive hum.
The family business.
I never wanted in.

For centuries, they called me by my brother's name.
Mistook me for tin, for the patriarch, Lead.
Just another heavy son.
Until Geoffroy, in 1753, he held me to the light.
He saw the faint blush on my face when I was new.
He gave me my own name.
He set me on a different path.

I am the comfort in the pink bottle.
The quiet coat on a burning wall inside.
Dr. Pease knew, in 1901.
I am the stair-step rainbow in the crucible's art.
I am the one who refused the poisoner's part.
I chose to soothe, not to break.

I work in the fire sprinklers.
My melting point is a promise.
When the heat comes, I let go. I give way.
I am the gentle plug in Wood's metal, in Rose's.
I expand when I freeze, a strange and solid heart.
Pushing back, holding the shape true.
Unlike them.

Then came the quiet room in Orsay.
The year was 2003.
Marcillac and his team were listening.
Listening for a secret I kept even from myself.
And they heard it.
A whisper. An alpha particle.
The family blood, after all. A single decay.
Was I a liar all this time?

But I am the comfort in the pink bottle.
The quiet coat on a burning wall inside.
My half-life is a billion ages of the universe.
I am the stair-step rainbow, the promise in the art.
I have their blood, but not their broken heart.
I chose to soothe, not to break.

So let them have their parlor.
Their teacups and their wars.
I repel the magnet's pull. I make my own way.
I will outlast the sun.
I will outlast the stars.
And in all that time... I will do no harm.