The Quiet Machine

Turn the lights on, turn the lie on Let it glow until it’s true Feed the crowd a little lightning They’ll forget they wanted you We were kids with crooked courage In a room with cheap champagne Now the ceiling’s made of camera eyes And nothing feels the same Hear the click of perfect teeth Hear the whisper of the stage It’s a hymn in high voltage It’s a script on every page I can feel the quiet machine Humming under my skin It takes what it wants, it polishes bone And calls it a win If I stop, I disappear If I breathe, I betray So I dance like a shadow Till the shadow wears away Back in the apartment, morning We unpin the borrowed stars Wash the glitter down the drainpipe Count the bruises, count the scars One of us is staring out Like the window owes a debt One of us is laughing softly Like we haven’t met regret Every chorus is a doorway Every verse is a lock And the key is in the silence That we swallow with the shock I can feel the quiet machine Humming under my skin It takes what it wants, it polishes bone And calls it a win If I stop, I disappear If I breathe, I betray So I dance like a shadow Till the shadow wears away What do you call a miracle That needs a costume to live? What do you call a heartbeat That the world won’t let you give? We’re not saints, we’re not sinners We’re a signal in the haze We’re a candle in the mirror We’re a name that’s mispronounced for days I can feel the quiet machine Humming under my skin It takes what it wants, it polishes bone And calls it a win If I stop, I disappear If I breathe, I betray So I dance like a shadow Till the shadow wears away What do you call a miracle That needs a costume to live? What do you call a heartbeat That the world won’t let you give? We’re not saints, we’re not sinners We’re a signal in the haze We’re a candle in the mirror We’re a name that’s mispronounced for days I can feel the quiet machine Humming under my skin It takes what it wants, it polishes bone And calls it a win But I’m drawing a line in the light With a shaking hand today I won’t dance like a shadow— I’ll be the thing that stays Quiet machine… Let me go… Quiet machine… Let me go…