Beetle in the Box

Hold your tongue the unwilling and the safe Make your mark in your own tiny way Your own miniature firework display for one Fear of facing the shadow on the shore Tied in knots and hung out on the backdoor The 'boy-done-good' thoughts of valour and the all for one It's the beetle in the box that shakes in your hands And it's formed out of feelings I don't understand They're mapped in the gaps and the spaces between The worry of bearing the ghost in the machine I eat your words and you mark my mistakes We set the dictionary up to fail The work of poets is a vapour we exhale it's gone Fleeting fondness is a flicker in your frown Spilling out in adjectives and nouns A mess of letters once it's chewed and swallowed down all gone It's the beetle in the box that shakes in your hands And it's formed out of feelings I don't understand They're mapped in the gaps and the spaces between The worry of bearing the ghost in the machine How do you feel pain? (Tremors through the floor) How do you hear sound? (Tapping on the walls) I wish I could feel it all It's the beetle in the box that shakes in your hands And it's formed out of feelings I don't understand They're mapped in the gaps and the spaces between The worry of bearing the ghost in the machine