Fitcher's Bride

[Verse 1]
He came dressed in beggar's rags
Touched my arm and filled his bags
One finger on my wrist and then
I woke inside his house of ten
Thousand rooms with open doors
Marble walls and singing floors
He placed a key into my palm
An egg into my other arm
"Go anywhere, touch what you please
But one door stays locked if you'd appease"

[Pre-Chorus]
My sisters came before me here
I know because their shoes are near

[Chorus]
Hold the egg, don't let it fall
Hold the egg through blood and all
One white shell between my hands
Fragile as a girl who understands
That every room he says to skip
Is where you'll find his fingertip
Pressed against a woman's throat
Hold the egg — and stay afloat

[Verse 2]
I set the egg upon the shelf
Wrapped it safe beside myself
Then turned the key he said was sin
And let the forbidden room breathe in
A basin wide as winter's mouth
Filled with parts arranged like south
And north — my sisters taken down
To meat and memory and gown
I found a hand still wearing rings
A throat still holding songs it sings

[Pre-Chorus]
I did not scream, I did not cry
I closed my mouth and closed my eye

[Chorus]
Hold the egg, don't let it fall
Hold the egg through blood and all
One white shell upon the shelf
While I rebuild my sisters' selves
Every rib returned to place
Every finger, every face
Piece by piece I find the seam
And stitch them back into a dream

[Bridge]
Bone to bone and vein to vine
I whispered "breathe" across the spine
One sister gasped, one sister woke
And neither one of us had spoke
We moved like water through his halls
Three women pressed against his walls
He checks the egg — no blood, no stain
He cannot fathom what I'veained
Now dress me, sisters, strip me bare
Cover me in honey, coat me in my hair
Feathers from his pillow bed
Till I am bird from toe to head

[Verse 3]
He met me on the road and bowed
"What a strange bird," he said aloud
"Have you seen my bride come by?"
I looked him dead in his good eye
"She's waiting at the house for you
With everything that she is due"
He walked inside, we locked the door
And set the fire across the floor

[Pre-Chorus]
The egg sits clean upon the shelf
The only witness to myself

[Chorus]
Hold the egg, don't let it fall
Hold the egg and burn the hall
One white shell that kept the proof
That I was thinking through the roof
While every other bride before
Dropped the egg upon the floor
I held it, set it, walked the room
And turned his slaughterhouse to tomb

[Final Chorus]
I am feathered, I am free
Built from honey and debris
My sisters walk beside me now
With stitches only we know how
Fitcher's bride was not a name
It was a fire I became

[Outro]
If a stranger takes your hand
And gives you things you don't understand
A key, an egg, a simple rule
Remember — he's the one who's the fool
Set the egg aside with care
Walk the room, see what's in there
Then build your sisters back from bone
And burn his house on your way home