Join the Tribes

Come in from the weather Come in from the noise Come in from the open sky And find a borrowed voice I had stood too long in weather With no shelter in the square Every voice became a warning I had stood too long in weather With no shelter in the square Every voice became a warning Every silence had a stare The common room was closing Or maybe never there Just a thousand little windows Making thunder out of air I did not join because I hated I joined because I was alone I needed somewhere warm enough To answer like a home Then a room arrived around me And it knew what I had lost It gave my fear a doorway And my anger found a cause Come in from the weather Come in from the noise Wear the wound we give you Find your borrowed voice Pick a side, pick a shelter Pick the shape that makes you whole Join the tribes, join the tribes Let the smaller room take hold They did not start with hatred They started with my name They told me I had suffered And the suffering had a frame They gave me back my outline In a mirror made of them Then showed me who had stolen it And told me where it went The mirror did not show me It showed me who to blame And when I learned the answer I stopped asking what had changed There was comfort in the border There was mercy in the line There was someone I could stand with There was someone not like mine Come in from the weather Come in from the noise Wear the wound we give you Find your borrowed voice Pick a side, pick a shelter Pick the shape that makes you whole Join the tribes, join the tribes Let the smaller room take hold Across the line another hunger Held a different flag the same Another mouth was naming weather Another wound was learning flame They had their own old stories They had their own clean knives They had their own reflection Where the enemy survives We wore opposing colours And learned the same refrain Two fires facing outward With the same face in the flame I could hear them through the border I could hear the matching cry But the tribe had taught me safety So I called the echo lies Come in from the weather Come in from the noise Wear the wound we give you Find your borrowed voice Pick a side, pick a shelter Pick the shape that makes you whole Join the tribes, join the tribes Let the smaller room take hold The power did not vanish It only changed its name It moved from law to hunger It moved from office into flame It moved through shared refusal It moved through borrowed pain It gave the lost a uniform And taught the hurt to reign I thought I had found shelter I thought the room was kind But every shelter had a border And every border needed mine Stay inside the weather Stay inside the wound Do not cross the open ground Do not leave the room Who are you without us? Who are you alone? Wear the wound correctly And the wound will be your home I came in from the weather I came in from the noise I left the common room behind me It no longer knew my voice I picked a wound, I picked a banner I picked the truth that let me stay Joined the tribes, joined the tribes And let the world outside decay I did not join because I hated I joined because I was alone Then they gave my loneliness a border And they taught the border home