Palliative Duet Lyrics

O₂ hisses through fractured hymns

Seven tumors bloom Rorschach stems

Morphine drips trace sonogram coasts

(seven blooms)

Your ribcage hums what the X-ray wrote

Fingernail moons chart zero grace

Saline psalms crack the IV brace

Code-blue bells in your hair's grey strands

(eight count)

You hold my oxygen (I hold yours)

Our chorus mapped in bronchial pause

Floor nine saints hum through latex paws

(stay)

We duet the drug-laced air (still duet)

Before the monitors forget

PET scan fireflies stake their claims

Port scars sing contralto blame

Nightshift moths mistake these blips

(static blips)

For porch lights guiding phantom ships

Nurse-call buttons glow like foxfire

Defibrillator hymns backfire

We're EKG lines learning sync

(till flat)

You clutch my oxygen (same clutch)

Through fentanyl-lit avalanche

This bed's our chapel and our trench

(stay)

We duet the frost-bit air (still frost)

While code teams bet beneath fluorescents

Twenty-three drips rename this ache

Our last breath still warming the tubes