The Preservationist's Rule

[Intro]
[Verse]
A touch of wheat starch paste
To mend the binder's haste
A spool of linen thread
For words that went unread
Nineteen twenty-four, Millay
Decaying day by day
[Pre-Chorus]
Acid eats the sheet
Where past and present meet
This deckled edge is torn
Like promises unborn
We scrape the mold away
To keep the rot at bay
[Chorus]
Tucked behind the flyleaf fold
A story left untold
A letter addressed to "My Sweet"
Lost where two margins meet
The wax is cracked and dry
Like a forgotten sigh
[Breakdown]
Foxing on the margins here
Making every vowel unclear
Methylcellulose will clean
The stains of what had been
Re-back the calfskin joint
To prove a structural point
[Verse]
I once held a pen
Way back when
I wrote a note to John
And then the chance was gone
I hid it in a chest
And chose to leave the rest
[Bridge]
We mend the paper seams
And bury old designs and schemes
But glue cannot restore
What we were waiting for
The ink remains asleep
In secrets that we keep
[Build-up]
Shall I break the seal?
Reveal the things they feel?
Or leave the wax intact?
And preserve the silent pact?
A preservationist's main rule
Don't play the curious fool
[Chorus]
So I press the spine
And trace the faded line
The letter stays inside
Where all the shadows hide
Some words are better lost
Whatever was the cost
[Outro]