Song 86: Patriotic

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1 — Chronos]
I have watched six thousand flags
Rise over six thousand ideas about soil
And the love was always real
Even when the idea was terrible
The farmer loved the field
Before the field had a name on a map
And the name on the map
Loved itself more than the farmer ever could

That's the problem with countries
They start as a feeling
And become an administration
And the administration forgets
That the feeling came first
And the feeling was just a woman
Standing in a field
Thinking: this is mine
Not because of a deed
But because of the way the light falls here
And nowhere else falls quite like this

[Pre-Chorus — Chronos]
And I don't love countries
I love the light that falls
On the specific field
Where the specific woman
Stands and calls it home
Before home was a policy

[Chorus — Both]
L'amour de la patrie, l'amour de la patrie
The love for a place that is also an argument
L'amour de la patrie, l'amour de la patrie
Complicated as a flag
That means freedom to the woman waving it
And something else entirely
To the woman watching from the café
Who came from somewhere else
And loves this place
The way you love a language
You learned late
Fluently
With an accent you will die with
And the accent is not a flaw
The accent is the love showing

[Verse 2 — Orikusis]
I love Việt Nam the way you love a scar
It's part of the body now
You don't choose it
You just notice it sometimes
When the weather changes
Or when someone asks where you're from
And the answer takes longer
Than the question deserved

And I love France the way you love
A house you've repainted so many times
That your colour is in the walls now
Your taste is in the kitchen
Your accent is in the stairwell
And the neighbours still say
You're not from here
And you smile
Because from here
Is a thing you've been building
For twenty years
With your hands
And your taxes
And your recipes
That the neighbours now request at Christmas

[Pre-Chorus — Orikusis]
Tôi yêu cả hai — I love them both
The way your lungs love both the inhale and the exhale
And no one asks the lungs
To choose

[Chorus — Both]
L'amour de la patrie, l'amour de la patrie
The love for a place that is also an argument
L'amour de la patrie, l'amour de la patrie
Complicated as a flag
That means one thing to the one who plants it
And another to the one who packed a bag
And chose this place
Not from birth but from intention
And the intention
Is its own kind of patriotism
The kind you build
Instead of inherit

[Bridge — Both, in conversation]


The argument is also real
And the real ones
Hold both
Without dropping either

[Outro]