Breaking me ...

take a second
to unravel
the complicated things
that you’re thinking
take to a moment
to unscrabble
the words that you never
could spell
take a minute
take an hour
take a week
or dammit a lifetime
give some space
for some meaning
give intelligence
a tanglible lifeline
let your heart
let your breathing
let your skin
and let your heartbeating
find a rhythm
rich with meaning
that isn’t just mindless
repeating

†

take a second
to imagine
what you’d be like if it
weren’t for rules
rules for living
rules for crying
rules for rebels
and rules for prudes
rules for shagging
rules for bragging
rules for morals
and rules for rules
rules for criminals
rules for liberals
rules you’re given
and rules you choose
would there be no
ground for standing
would you float
as free as a feather?
would you put your
guilty feelings
liturgically into a shredder?
COULD you put your
guilty feelings
sacramentally into a shredder?
and could you find a
code of meaning
not based on rules
but based on a story?
could you unravel
bad religion
and knit
a story to hold me?

†

alleluia, alleluia

†

D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E-
is
s-u-f-f-o-c-a-t-i-n-g- me
R-E-L-I-G-I-O-N-
is
b-r-e-a-k-i-n-g- me
and
B-R-E-A-T-H-I-N-G-
is
R-E-C-R-E-A-T-I-N-G- me
and M-Y-T-H- is
liberating me

†

I don’t need
to be
born again
(no), I
don’t need
to be
born again
I don’t need
to be born again
I was born once
and that was enough
what I need
is I need a good friend,
cos I’m lonely
and I’m gifted
I don’t need another damn
puberty
I need to grow-up
stop waiting for certainty
to be proved to me

†

alleluia, alleluia

†

A-L-L-E-L-U-I-A-

†

and could you find a
code of meaning
not based on rules
but based on a story?
could you unravel
bad religion and knit
a story to hold me?

†

I am Mary, in the Garden
Seeing God in the face of a gardener
I’m leaving conclusion, embracing delusion
it’s better, but jesus it’s harder.

†

(Written and performed by Padraig Twomey, with Jon Hatch, Sarah Williamson and Stephen Caswell)