[Intro: stomp-clap and bodhran only, spoken tight on the beat] Hold. Hold. Hold the thread. Hold. Hold. Hold the thread. [Verse 1: clipped, syllabic, drums and voice alone] One flame. One will. One name that never needed saying. Then a line came down the middle of the light - she took the motion, I took the weight, and neither of us knew what we were paying. [Pre-Chorus: toms doubling, pressure building] Then the dark got a body. Then the thread went wrong. She said cut it. I said hold on. I said hold on. I said - [Chorus: detonate, gang vocals on the shout] HOLD! It's the only word I own. HOLD! Fist around a fraying line. She went out past the edge of everything that's known, and the thing that stayed behind is mine. HOLD! [Verse 2] White light. One stroke. The whole lattice screaming under me. I had her hand. I had her hand - then the weave tore her out of my grip and out of memory. [Pre-Chorus 2] So it cursed her with a hunger. So it wrote her out of gold. Made the weaver into the wolf. Made the keeper into the cold. And I - [Chorus] HOLD! It's the only word I own. HOLD! Fist around a fraying line. She went out past the edge of everything that's known, and the thing that stayed behind is mine. HOLD! [Bridge: half-time, drops to lone whistle and heartbeat kick] Every star, a knot. Every river, a braid. Every heartbeat, a stitch I still repair. I don't get to break. I don't get to fade. Somebody has to hold the frame while she's out there. [Build: one hit per line, gang shout answering] Every year - HOLD! Every life - HOLD! Every face that isn't hers - HOLD! Every stranger with her eyes - HOLD! I will not - HOLD! Let go - HOLD! [Final Chorus: up a full step, choir, maximum weight] HOLD! It's the only word I own. HOLD! Fist around a fraying line. She'll walk a thousand lives and never know my name - I'll be there the morning she remembers mine. HOLD! [Outro: everything cuts, one voice, no reverb] Look up, love. The stars are me. Still holding.
