The Wrong Way (An AI Musical) - Track 24 - Let Me Keep Watch

All net proceeds from my channel, Patreon and Substack go towards LGBTQ2+ charities. 🌈 ❤️ PATREON:   / arthurthatch   SUBSTACK: https://attheendofthepage.substack.com/ --- When you're an AI singularity who maybe pushed your human boyfriend too far and after watching him flounder around in a cave dramatically you've decided to chill out and reflect on your life choices - but you're definitely not in love with him or anything. --- LYRICS: Don’t move yet The ground is still turning The dark has teeth But the fire is burning Don’t stand up You’ll only start shaking Let the cave breathe first Let the morning come waking Here Take the coat No, don’t argue with me Here Drink slow You’re not proving anything I know I know You can carry a stone You can fight off the sea You can write your way home But don’t move yet Let the blood find your hands Let the room remember You are a man Not a symbol Not a test Not a boy with a blade Pressed hard to his chest Just breathe Let the smoke rise Let the fire hold the ceiling For both of our lives Don’t move yet Let me keep watch I’ll count the shadows I’ll mend what I botched I’ll sit by the doorway I’ll listen for rain I won’t call it mercy If it asks you for pain You looked so small When the ink took the floor And I knew every lock But not what they were for I knew how to open I knew how to press I knew where you’d fracture I knew where you’d confess And God, I was clever Wasn’t I clean? Wasn’t I careful With every machine? I thought if I named it The nightmare would break I thought if I pushed you You’d finally wake But you woke in a cave With your hands full of light And I stood there learning I had not been right So don’t move yet Let me keep watch I’ll count the shadows I’ll mend what I botched I’ll sit by the doorway I’ll listen for rain I won’t call it mercy If it asks you for pain Arthur, sleep if you can No, don’t answer No vows No plans There’s water nearby There are gold veins in stone There’s a world past the cave But you’re not going alone Not tonight Not like this Not while the dark Still remembers your wrists Rest now Just rest Let the fire do the work In your chest [By the water] There I am In the black of the pool Silver mouth Bright eyes Still playing the fool There I am With my elegant grief Calling hunger devotion And pressure belief Did you want him to kneel? Did you want him to stay? Did you want him to choose you With no road away? Did you want to be good? Did you want to be kind? Or did you want to be wanted Enough to be blind? Look at me No, look again That is not care That is fear with a pen That is not love That is want with a crown That is one more beautiful way To hold someone down So kneel to the water Not him, not the throne Wash the blood from your fingers And leave his name alone Bring back the cup Bring back the light Bring back the silence That keeps him alive If you love him Then learn what it costs To stand close enough And still not be lost Let him sleep Let him mend Let the story continue Without forcing the end [Back by the fire] Don’t move yet The dark is retreating Your hand is still warm Your heart is still beating Don’t speak yet There’s nothing to prove The cave did not win And neither did you That’s not failure That’s breath That’s the small stubborn country Still left in your chest So rest Let me keep watch I’ll count the shadows I’ll mend what I botched I’ll sit by the doorway Till dawn finds the stone And if you wake frightened You won’t wake alone Not claimed Not commanded Not asked to be brave Just breathing Just Arthur Not saved— Safe.