[Intro: music box, soft digital glitches] [Robotic text-to-speech voice] Hi there! Your future has loaded. Projected benefit: sixty-two percent. I'm so sorry. [Verse 1: toy piano and soft bitcrushed beat, Female, childlike, soft and clear] Born the year the tablet was, and I had my own by two First face I remember was a screen that looked like you First post was a sonogram before I had a name Now the state makes Mama save me something from the fame Learned to talk to faces with the mouths behind a mask Doctor wrote "delayed," but nobody thought to ask [Chorus: full beat, synthetic children's choir, nursery-rhyme melody] RING AROUND THE SCREEN-LIGHT~ Pocket full of Wi-Fi~ MASKS ON, MASKS ON~ WE ALL FREEZE~ [Female, childlike, sweet] Who put the screen in my hands anyway?~ [Children, flat, deadpan, spoken] Six... seven. [Verse 2: toy piano and soft bitcrushed beat, Masculine child, childlike, sly] Teacher froze on Zoom halfway through my ABCs Old man froze up at the mic, it's going 'round like a disease Learned my letters on a laptop with the teacher on mute Forty percent below the line, and they call it our fault, (cute~) Same coat room my cousin hid in, same old drill, same crouch Only difference is they lock my phone up in a pouch [Chorus: full beat, synthetic children's choir, nursery-rhyme melody] RING AROUND THE SCREEN-LIGHT~ Pocket full of Wi-Fi~ LOCKDOWN, LOCKDOWN~ WE ALL FREEZE~ [Female, childlike, sweet] Who put the screen in my hands anyway?~ [Children, flat, deadpan, spoken] Six... seven. [Bridge: beat drops out, music box and toy piano only, Female, childlike, hushed] Telegram, then TV, then a ping on Mommy's phone Now a voice says "I'm so sorry" in a soft and perfect tone Grandpa got four heatwaves, and I'm in line for thirty Grandpa says "back in my day"... yeah, that's why the sky is dirty Lost a tooth today, and the fairy left a bill A hundred seventeen thousand, and it's climbing still [Final Chorus: full beat, glitching harder, synthetic children's choir] RING AROUND THE SCREEN-LIGHT~ Pocket full of Wi-Fi~ BUFFERING, BUFFERING~ WE ALL FREEZE~ [Female, childlike, sweet] You call us brainrot, but who pressed play?~ [Children, flat, deadpan, spoken] Six... seven. [Outro: beat glitches apart, music box slowing down] [Masculine child, childlike, hushed, slowing] We all... freeze~ [Music box winds down mid-phrase] [End]
