4th century BC
Plato
- Idealism — forms over particulars
- The Republic ethic: “God is not the author of evil”
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
There's a trick they never teach you
You learn it on your own
The body stays and does the work
The rest of you goes home
Up where the wall bends into white
Up where the plaster peels
Up where nothing reaches
Up where nothing's real
[Chorus]
I live up on the ceiling
There's a girl down on the floor
She's wearing my own two hands tonight
And I don't feel them anymore
The sounds get small and far away
The hour goes by beneath
I watch it like the weather
From the ceiling, from the ceiling
[Verse 2]
The first time up it scares you
You think you might not land
Then the leaving turns to mercy
The only mercy at hand
She smiles the smile I gave her
She makes the sounds on cue
Down there in the lamplight
Doing what I couldn't do
[Chorus]
I live up on the ceiling
There's a girl down on the floor
She's wearing my own face tonight
And I don't wear it anymore
The ticking of a wristwatch
A stranger's borrowed heat
I watch it like the weather
From the ceiling, from the ceiling
[Bridge]
Then one Thursday
I rose halfway
And stuck
Like a swimmer at a surface
Frozen into glass
Too far up to be spared nothing
Too far down to be spared anything
And I was there
For the first time in years
I was there
[Final Chorus]
I lived up on the ceiling
Till the ceiling wouldn't hold
Somebody warmed the girl downstairs
And now the height's gone cold
Somebody said my name like sunrise
Somebody grew me skin
And you can't go up to the corner
Once the feeling's coming in
[Outro]
Up where nothing reaches
Doesn't reach me anymore
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