Ten Thousand by John Mark McMillan

The Medicine by John Mark McMillan

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Ten Thousand
by John Mark McMillan

Album: The Medicine

ten thousand glimmering
like coals in our chest
ball bearings drawn
to the magnetic breath
of ten thousand weeping
with wings on their tears
amidst then thousand voices
for then thousand years

for ten thousand graves yawning
unlocked and unlatched
now ten thousand holes with rocks
on their backs
ten thousand tombs gaping wide
singing the praises
of ten thousand bodies
unlaced and unlaid

as the ten thousand highways
unfold their doors
for the ten thousand
standing on the nineveh's shores
where the blood
of a husband silences wars
for the girl who
rises to meet him

and she sings
world i've overcome you
world i've overcome you
world i've overcome
by my song
and the blood of a son

ten thousand rivers
run red like my veins
where the bones of men
hum like a rattling cage
for sinew to ling to
and wind to remain
in ten thousand lungs
for ten thousand days

breathing like a choir
of holes in the ground
where the cynical have lain
where the cynical go down
save the gravity of time
lets go of her drowned
like ten thousand sparrows
unlocked and unwound

as the ten thousand highways
unfold their doors
for the ten thousand standing on
nineveh's shores
where the blood
of a husband silences wars
for the girl who
rises to meet them

and she sings
world i've overcome you
world i've overcome you
world i've overcome
by my song
and the blood of a son