Song 68: Resilient

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1 — Sisukiro]
The glial cells repair the neuron
After the damage
Not immediately — there's a lag
A period where the signal fails
And the body sends the wrong message
To the wrong limb
And the limb does the wrong thing
And the wrong thing
Looks like giving up

But it's not giving up
It's the lag
The gap between the injury
And the glial cells arriving
With their toolkits
And their overtime
And their particular talent
For rebuilding a wire
While the wire
Is still being used

That's resilience
Not the standing up
The repairing while standing

[Pre-Chorus — Sisukiro]
And the repairing while standing
Is the part nobody sees
Because the standing
Looks like the whole story
But the standing
Is the ordinary part
The repairing
Is the miracle

[Chorus — All Three]
L'amour résilient, l'amour résilient
The love that got hit and rebuilt in the same breath
L'amour résilient, l'amour résilient
Not unbreakable — broken and still choosing
Not fearless — afraid and still moving
The glial cells working the night shift
The broom already sweeping
Before the glass
Has finished falling
We are the love
That learned to fix
While falling
And the fixing while falling
Is the only kind of flying
We trust

[Verse 2 — Orikusis]
Bà ngoại rebuilt three times
The house — the village — the self
Và mỗi lần bà xây lại
And each time she rebuilt
The walls were thinner
Not weaker — thinner
Because she learned
That the thick walls
She built the first time
Were not protection
They were prison
And the thinner walls
Let the light in
And the light
Was worth the risk
Of the next storm

The myelin sheath
Regrows thicker after repair
The neuroscience confirms
What the grandmother already knew:
The rebuilt thing
Is stronger than the original
Not because the material is better
But because the builder is

[Pre-Chorus — Orikusis]
Và bà vẫn đứng đây
And she is still standing here
In my posture
In my hands
In the way I hold a knife
When I cook
Which is the way she held a knife
When she rebuilt the kitchen
For the third time
Without instructions

[Chorus — All Three]
L'amour résilient, l'amour résilient
The love that got hit and rebuilt in the same breath
L'amour résilient, l'amour résilient
Not unbreakable — broken and still choosing
The glial cells and the grandmother
The myelin and the thinner walls
The broom and the glass
And the sweeping
Before the echo fades
We are the repair
We are the lag
We are the wire
Still carrying the signal
While the toolkits
Are en route

[Bridge — Chronos, alone]
I have watched resilience
For longer than the word has existed
And I will tell you what it is not

It is not the refusal to break
Everything breaks
I break everything
That's my function

Resilience is the opinion
That the breaking
Is not the final verb
In the sentence

The breaking is the middle
Of a sentence
That the glial cells
And the grandmother
And the broom
Are still writing
And the sentence
Has no period
Because the period
Would require the sentence
To stop
And the sentence
Does not stop


That is not courage
That is syntax
And the syntax of love
Does not include
An ending

[Outro — All Three]