[Intro | exposed tenor | two separated guitar phrases] Nothing happened. Something still was lost. [Verse 1 | guttural growl | uneven drums] A ticket folded, never purchased A city learned through photographs They furnish rooms they never entered And hear the children that they never had The other life grows clean in absence No petty quarrel, no repair How easy to perfect a future When nothing has to happen there [Chorus | soaring sorrowful tenor] Can another life be missed When it never learned to happen? What is grief allowed to hold When there’s nothing to go back to? [Verse 2 | deep growl | melodic guitar fragments] They give the stranger their ambition They give the stranger better years They leave out all the dull appointments The compromises, smaller fears Meanwhile a meal waits on the table A voice repeats a simple ask How much of what is here goes missing Beside the life that never has? [Chorus | clear tenor | layered strings] Can another life be missed When it never learned to happen? What is grief allowed to hold When there’s nothing to go back to? [Extended instrumental | two guitar melodies diverge] [Piano follows one phrase, then the other] [Drums recede | leave both melodies incomplete] [Bridge | low growl | exposed bass] No proof it would be better. No proof it would be worse. An unlived life stays open To every kind of worth. [Clean tenor | restrained] Does choosing make a loss real? Does longing make it true? [Final Chorus | tenor | sparse piano] Can another life be missed When it never learned to happen? What is grief allowed to hold When there’s nothing to go back to? [Outro | nearly whispered] Nothing happened. Something still was lost. [Separated guitar phrases | neither resolves]
