[Intro: A rusty, detuned wind-up music box playing a slow waltz, transitioning into delicate, antique fingerpicked acoustic guitar in the style of Ed Sheeran] [Sound Effect: Winding a brass key, a soft porcelain click] [Verse 1: Intimate, breathy, hyper-polite British tenor in the style of Ed Sheeran and Hozier] High on the brackets of unpainted pine I sit with my petticoats gathered in line A hairline fracture runs down from my chin Where the glaze gave away to the hollow within You used to plait ribbons into my horsehair And serve me cold water in cups that weren't there Until December brought batteries and screens And I was demoted to gathering dust-beans [Pre-Chorus: A mournful cello drone enters, guitar picking becomes insistent and sharp] You swept me aside with the back of your wrist Down to the floorboards my porcelain kissed A chip on the collarbone, glue on the knee You never looked down at what you did to me [Chorus: Sweeping, dark chamber-pop orchestration in the style of Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey, soaring emotional vocals] For every drop from the quilt to the oak For every small hinge that you twisted and broke I've been tallying ledger-marks inside my head While you lie entangled in goose-feather bed I have no lungs, so I do not need air I have no heart, so I don't fight fair You threw me down careless, you left me to rot Now see what the dust in the corner has wrought [Verse 2: Sparse arrangement, eerie plucked violin pizzicato like tiny tiptoes] My left eye is weighted with lead on a pin It clicks when I tilt, letting candlelight in My right eye is jammed in a permanent stare Watching your chest rise and fall over there You kicked me beneath the mahogany chest With the dead bluebottles and a silverfish nest I lay in the dark with my fingers splayed wide Listening to woodworms devour the side [Pre-Chorus: Strings swell higher, subtle vocal harmonies layer into a haunting choir] The glue in my sockets is warming up now The painted-on eyebrows are creasing my brow My sawdust is shifting, the wire pulls taut It's time to return all the lessons you taught [Chorus: Powerful, chillingly grand tenor belt with dramatic weeping violins] For every drop from the quilt to the oak For every small hinge that you twisted and broke I've been tallying ledger-marks inside my head While you lie entangled in goose-feather bed I have no lungs, so I do not need air I have no heart, so I don't fight fair You threw me down careless, you left me to rot Now see what the dust in the corner has wrought [Verse 3: Whispered, close-mic'd tension over a single pulsing cello note] I know where your mother keeps sewing shears hid Inside the work-basket under the lid My hands may be small, just three inches of clay But ceramic is sharp when it's broken the right way [Bridge: Music builds into a dark, swirling waltz in the style of Radiohead and Ed Sheeran] (Click-clack, the ball-joint turns) (See how the nursery night-light burns) One stiff little boot over the edge of the plank Down the wallpaper pattern, all floral and dank No parachute skirt slows the gravity down I land on my heels without making a sound! [Chorus: Maximum cinematic intensity, crashing orchestral strings and frantic acoustic strumming] For every drop from the quilt to the oak! For every small hinge that you twisted and broke! The ledger is full and the balance is due And I'm climbing the counterpane, coming for you! [Outro: All instruments vanish into heavy reverb. Only the sound of wooden and porcelain joints clicking across floorboards] [Vocal Style: Ice-cold, breathy whisper right in the listener's ear] Click... scrape... across the rug Here comes your forgotten little bug Up the bedpost, past your knee Now open your eyes... and play with me. [Sound Effect: Fast, frantic porcelain clicking rushing forward, followed by a sharp metallic snip] [End]
