[INTRO — 8 bars] [Male bari-tenor, G2–E4. Very close, low, fragile. Almost spoken.] I got good at looking steady While the floor moved underneath Got good at biting down the answer Before it reached my teeth I kept the cracks beneath my collar Kept the shaking out of sight Learned to call it getting older When I couldn't sleep at night [VERSE 1 — 16 bars] [Quiet rhythmic delivery. Slightly behind the beat.] I became a room with no windows A locked door with somebody home Every question got a "nothing" Every warning got ignored I stacked the days against each other Till the whole thing leaned too far Kept saying, "I've got this" Like I knew where "this" was There's a tremor in the floorboards There's a fault line in the frame Something underneath me Keeps forgetting how to stay [PRE-EXPLOSION — 8 bars] [Build slowly. More grit and urgency with each line.] I hear it in the silence I feel it in my hands Everything I've kept together Is slipping where I stand [EXPLOSION — 8 bars] [Full gritty chest voice. Emotional, melodic, never screamed.] I'm breaking Hear the sound of it Breaking Like the walls are giving in I'm breaking And I can't pretend That holding on is saving me If I disappear again I spent so long becoming What everybody needed me to be Now every piece that's falling off Is something I don't need [RHYTHMIC FRACTURE — 8 bars] [Near-spoken. Tight, percussive. Abrupt stops and silence.] Hold it. Don't show it. Swallow it. Smile. Keep moving. Nobody notices. Nobody— [Beat.] Stop. [Silence.] I can't do this quietly anymore. [FLOATING BRIDGE — 8 bars] [Warm, exposed, almost weightless. Let the melody breathe.] Maybe I mistook the weight For something I was meant to bear Maybe every locked door Wasn't mine to keep repaired Maybe these jagged edges Don't have to disappear Maybe I can touch the broken places And leave them where they are [SECOND EXPLOSION — 8 bars] [Biggest vocal. Gritty, controlled, emotionally exposed.] I'm breaking Let it happen now Breaking I don't know how to stop it I'm breaking And I'm done pretending Every chain I called protection Was just something I was dragging Let it fall Let it tear Let the whole damn structure show I'm breaking And underneath it There's somebody I still know [ANTHEMIC RELEASE — 8 bars] [Open, powerful melodic delivery. No forced high notes.] Let it fall Let it fall I don't have to hold the sky Let it fall Let it fall I don't have to justify If I lose the shape I built Maybe that's the price of being free Let it fall Let it fall Let what's left of me be me [COMPLETE COLLAPSE — 8 bars] [Almost whispered. Extremely intimate.] There's dust across the floorboards Daylight through the frame Nothing here is asking To be rebuilt the same I hear the house settling I hear my breathing slow For the first time in forever I don't have to know [FINAL RESOLUTION — 8 bars] [Soft, honest, slightly cracked. Almost no vibrato.] I'm breaking [Pause.] I'm still here. I'm breaking And I can finally hear The part of me I buried Under everything I carried I'm breaking [Long pause.] Maybe that's how I begin. [Final chord sustains.]
