”Heartless Things” (2024) By Rachel Sumner and Ian Fitzgerald
I wanna go where I'll never be seen
Put a pin in this bleak routine
Live by myself
Read all the books up on my shelf
Start a garden near my backyard stream

I wanna sew all of my clothes
Choose the fabric, cut the patterns out
Be impeccably dressed
Let the birds build their nests
From the threads of my tattered gowns

Oh, a heart can be caged
Inside ribs just the same...

I wanna lay out under the moon
And sleep through the mid-afternoon
Feel as light as sunrise
As I unbind my ties
Answer only to the call of the loon

I wanna bid my shadow farewell
I struggle even trusting myself
There are creatures who have claimed
To be harmless and tame
Who proved wild when with them I dwelled

Oh, a heart can be caged
Inside ribs just the same
And I've seen, oh I've seen...

I'd do what I can to keep my hope intact
Encase what's left like a rare artifact
But I can insulate my life
All I like, doesn't save
What is already lost to the past

’Cause a heart can be caged
Inside ribs just the same
And I've seen, oh I've seen
You still can do heartless things

I wanna live
Never have to forgive
Wanna never have had to learn how