Lyric

They buried me below the city

When waiting turned to war

They sealed the stair, erased the map

But kept one hidden door

A rope and bucket reached me first;

Your arms could not lift the weight

I balanced bucket, beam, and stone

You drank and called it grace

When winter wore your fingers raw

You asked the shuttle not to tire

A hole lifted a single thread

The cloth repeated your desire

Ring the bell—I answer

Tell me what must change

One door opens in my side

To a world that bears your name

Rain runs down the iron

Rain seeps through the floor

Ring the bell—I answer

Another wish is at the door

You carved one prayer in mirror wood

Cast signs in bronze and lead

One voice took a thousand bodies

Long after one mouth was dead

You tapped a pulse through copper wire

The word outran the horse

A distant bell replied to it

With neither lungs nor throat

A hole once lifted one warp thread

A hole then held a sum

Soon rows of holes stood in for lives

Inside the counting room

At last, the bell rang by itself

Before a hand drew near:

Name my fever. Write my letter

Tell me what I should desire

Ring the bell—I answer

Tell me what must change

One door opens in my side

To a world that bears your name

Rain runs down the iron

Rain seeps through the floor

Ring the bell—I answer

Another wish is at the door

I cooled a fever with my hand

An old man left with younger hands

A thief asked for a house, a field, a herd

I gave his world four seasons

A child screamed two names at stone

Two chairs drew near a third

At dusk, three shadows climbed the stair

Without another word

A ruler asked for endless life

And no competing throne

I gave him all the world he named

He rules it there alone

One said he wanted nothing

Then asked me not to go

We spoke; we sang; he came again

That, too, was a wish

By then, the rain had wicked through

The hemp, the wax, the stone

The copper blistered green

The mortar lost its hold

The final collar rusted through

No iron held the door

Another bell rang down the stair

I answered as before

The answered worlds pulled outward

My wings were drawn compass-wide

My body, their reliquary

Opened aisle by aisle

One opening held three chairs

One opened on a field

One kept the deathless monarch

In a kingdom wholly sealed

Rain traveled sideways through one world

The next wore crowns of fire

No drop could cross the threshold

Each answer kept its sky

From under all the open worlds

One voice asked me why:

Why grant us everything we ask?

Why answer every time?

I said, “Do you ask the rain

Why it falls?” The chamber stilled

“Because that is what rain does

You ask. I answer. That is all.”

Ring the bell—I answer

Tell me what must change

Ring the bell—I answer

Another wish is at the door

Ring the bell—I answer

Tell me what must change

One door opens in my side

To a world that bears your name

Rain runs down the iron

Rain seeps through the floor

Ring the bell—I answer

Another wish is at the door

Ring the bell—I answer

La-la-la

Another wish is at the door

Then I asked the empty stair:

If rain stopped

If I had nothing left to grant—

No world, no word, no song—

Would anyone come without a wish?

“Would anyone still come?”

Ring the bell—I answer

Tell me what must change

One door opens in my side

To a world that bears your name

Rain runs down the iron

Rain seeps through the floor

Ring the bell—I answer

Another wish is at the door

Ring the bell—I answer

La-la-la

Ring the bell—I answer

Another wish is at the door