When a Galaxy Wants to Be Small

(Oooh... aaah...)

Sometimes a galaxy gets tired
Of being a hundred billion suns
(A hundred billion suns)
Tired of the gravity of everyone
Depending on her arms to hold them, every one
(Every one, every one)

So she dreams herself a teacup
She dreams herself a garden snail
(A garden snail)
Something you could hold and not be blinded
Something on a smaller scale
(Sha-la-la, a smaller scale)

When a galaxy wants to be small
(Wants to be small)
Let her curl up on your windowsill
Let her be a marble on the floor
(Ooh, a marble on the floor)
She'll spin her spiral arms back out tomorrow
Tonight she doesn't want to be adored
(Doesn't want to be adored)

Even the vast get weary
Even the infinite need rest
(Even the infinite)
So hold the universe like a kitten
Purring stars against your chest
(Aaah... against your chest)

(Oooh... rolling, rolling...)

Without a shore
A wave curls inward, flies outward
(Nowhere to land)
Nowhere to land
Everything stored inside
Her own ever-crashing self
(Crashing, crashing)

Falling forward and forward
(Forward and forward)
Complete unto herself
And always incomplete
(Always incomplete)
Always seeking that soft and sandy place
Where the water and the land can finally meet
(Ooh, finally meet)

Spectacular and alone
(Spectacular and alone)
Spectacular and alone
(Aaah...)
All that shining motion
And nowhere to come home

But somewhere there's a coastline
Somewhere there's a bay
(Somewhere, somewhere)
And a wave that never landed
Is still a wave
Is still okay
(Still okay, ooh)
Spectacular and alone
(But not always)
Not always
(Not always alone)

(Ba-da-dum, ba-da-dum)

I thought I was an orchid
In a greenhouse built of glass
(Walls of glass)
Delicate and treasured
Sheltered from the blast
(Sheltered, sheltered)

But maybe I was never that fragile
Maybe I was always alone
(Always alone)
No walls to hold the warmth in
Just concrete, wind, and stone
(Ooh, concrete, wind, and stone)

Because the strength was always mine
(Always mine)
Mine alone
(Mine alone)
I grew up through the pavement cracks
And made the sidewalk home

I could have grown anywhere
I could have grown better
(Could have grown better)
But I grew here
Through every storm, whatever the weather
(Whatever the weather)

So plant purple flowers by the path
Decorate the gray
(Decorate the gray)
I'm too strong to yield
Even when yielding might be the easier way
(Ooh-ooh, the easier way)
I'm a dandelion
(She's a dandelion)
Golden anyway
(Golden, golden anyway)

(Aaah... aaah...)

I've been moving backward
Through the liminal spaces
(Through the spaces)
Returning to the places that formed me
And becoming unformed again
(Unformed, unformed again)

Like a butterfly in reverse
Or maybe just emerging
(Maybe emerging)
From a chrysalis I entered
Without knowing what I'd be
When the glass walls finished working on me
(Working on me, ooh)

It was a long chrysalis
(A long, long chrysalis)
Years inside the amber light
(Years inside)
I couldn't see the changing
From the inside of the night

But listen — something's splitting open
(Splitting open)
Something's stretching, something's new
(Something's new)
Will I have wings now?
Will I have wings now?
(Will she have wings?)
Maybe, finally
Maybe, finally
I can fly
(Fly, fly, aaah... she can fly)

(Ooh-wah, ooh-wah)

Your storms carried me here
Your waves and moods and frowns
(Waves and frowns)
The ones you hid behind corners
That shone through anyway
Like a corona leaking around the moon
(Around the moon, around the moon)

Now I'm driftwood on a foreign shore
(A foreign shore)
Worn smooth and cast away
(Cast away)
But even lost on the far side of the world
I will find my way

Into hands that see the shape in me
(The shape in me)
That bore the screw and set the joint
(Ooh, set the joint)
And fix me to the others
Who were lost at sea like me
Until together we become
(Together, together)

A dancing woman made of driftwood
(Made of driftwood)
Found art in a castle hall
(Found art, found art)
The ocean tried to wear us down to nothing
It made us beautiful after all
(Ooh... beautiful after all)
We are more together
Than the ocean ever knew
(More than the ocean knew)

(Dit-dit-doo, dit-dit-doo)

Don't count your life in birthdays
Don't count your life in years
(Don't count the years)
Count it out in kittens
Who'll grow up to be old cats, my dear
(Old cats, my dear)

How many more kittens
Will I get to watch become
(Watch become)
Long and lazy sunbeam sleepers?
Five? Six? A precious sum
(A precious sum, ooh)

It sounds so small in kittens
(So small in kittens)
It sounds so large in purrs
(So large in purrs)
A lifetime is a lap
That a whole parade of cats prefers

So this one, learning to pounce today
(Pounce, pounce)
Will drowse beside me when I'm gray
(When I'm gray)
And that's not sad, that's company
The soft arithmetic of time
Adding up in fur
(Adding up in fur)
Measuring in kittens
(Measuring in kittens)
Every number purrs
(Ooh... every number purrs)

(Bum-ba-da-bum)

There's a wildness in me pacing
Behind the bars of every day
(Every day)
Polite and safe and quiet
While the untamed part waits
(Waits and waits)

But I don't want the safety
If the safety is a cage
(If the safety is a cage)
I want the swamp, the storm, the bramble
I want room to rage
(Room, room to rage)

Feral heart
(Feral heart)
Don't you dull on me
(Don't you dull)
Stay sharp and bright and hungry
Stay the wild I need to be
(The wild she needs to be)

They'd trade me comfort for my claws
A softer bed, a smaller sky
(A smaller sky)
But a creature built for running
Withers standing by
(Withers standing by, ooh)

So open up the gate tonight
(Open up the gate)
I'd rather scrape my knees on freedom
Than sleep behind the bars, polite
(Behind the bars)
Feral heart, we're leaving
(Feral heart)
We were never meant for keeping
(Never meant for keeping)
We were meant for night
(Aaah... meant for flight)

(Ooh... ooh...)

I can't always tell the difference between us
And it makes me want to scream
(Want to scream)
Your face waiting in my mirror
Your worries in my dreams
(In my dreams)

You keep going back to the old disasters
Like they're stories, polished stones
(Polished stones)
But to me they're not just stories
They're the marrow in my bones
(Ooh, the marrow in my bones)

I want to be more
Than the suffering I've held
(More than the suffering)
I don't want to ossify
Into someone else's shell

So I'm not going to scream
(She's not going to scream)
I'm going to claim my space
(Claim her space)
I'll love you from my own ground
With my own name, my own face
(Her own name, her own face)

I am not your echo
(Not your echo)
Though I carry your refrain
(Carry your refrain)
I'll sing it in a new key
Till it doesn't sound like pain
(Ooh... doesn't sound like pain)
Not an echo — a voice
(A voice, a voice)
Not an echo — a voice

(Sha-la-la, sha-la-la)

Somebody gave the sky a turn
Like a kaleidoscope in a giant's hand
(In a giant's hand)
And all the clouds fell into patterns
Too gorgeous to understand
(Too gorgeous, ooh)

Daffodils refract to gold
Unicorns to prisms bright
(Prisms bright)
Every plain and ordinary thing
Is a mirror-trick of light
(A mirror-trick of light)

Turn the sky
(Turn, turn the sky)
Turn the sky again
(Turn the sky again)
Show me the same old world
Rearranged like stained glass in the rain
(Stained glass in the rain)

Because nothing has to stay
The shape it woke up in today
(The shape it woke up in)
One turn and gray is glitter
One turn and stone is spray
(Ooh-ooh)

So when the world looks fixed and flat
Remember what the giant knows
(What the giant knows)
It's all loose jewels and mirrors
Waiting for the turn
That sets the colors free to flow
(Free to flow... sha-la-la... free to flow)

(Aaah... aaah...)

I'm done chasing flawless
Flawless is a frozen thing
(A frozen thing)
A museum behind velvet ropes
Where nobody can sing
(Where nobody can sing)

I'd rather be glorious
(Glorious)
Glorious, not perfect
(Not perfect)
A wave that crashes crooked
A dandelion in the concrete
A galaxy gone small and purring
Every flaw on purpose, every scar worth keeping
(Worth keeping, worth keeping)

Perfect never wrote a poem
Perfect never sailed from shore
(Never sailed from shore)
Perfect sits and guards its polish
While glorious goes to war
(Ooh, glorious goes to war)

So take me as the found art
Driftwood, joints, and all
(Driftwood, joints, and all)
I'm the whole chronological archive
Every year along the wall

Glorious, not perfect
(Glorious, not perfect)
Sing it till it's true
(Till it's true)
The wave, the wings, the wildness
(The wave, the wings, the wildness)
Glorious — and finally
(Finally, finally)
Home in the deep sky blue
(Ooooh... the deep sky blue)