Instrumental intro – 20 sec: tape loop of distant clocks, cash register, deep bass drone, synth pad, heartbeat kick] [Verse 1 – spoken word, tired, monotone] Concrete slabs count my steps. Seventy-five beats per minute — is that the city's pulse or my own melancholy? A man walks down the highway. Behind him a trail of exhausted hopes. Somewhere out there, in this gray haze, are those who believed in warm light. I keep walking. The only thing I hear is sand grinding between time's teeth. [Pre-chorus – voice rises slightly, bass deepens] My soul is a one-way ticket bought from a vending machine at the station of emptiness. I pay with my time for the air. But the air here is not the same anymore. [Chorus – full, bass heavy, emotional] Careful! The moon is on a bender. It's about to wring my neck with its white light. Silence is a sound too loud. Whisper me something that cannot be fixed. Everything I had inside — traded for a gray, everlasting blues. [Instrumental – weeping guitar solo, 30 sec] [Verse 2 – voice cracks, intense] I met my reflection in a shop window. It didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't love. It said: "Look at us — we're shadows of the ones we failed to become." A clock tower starts its run. Counting down until we both turn to dust. In my head — empty static. The moon hangs like a nervous tic. [Bridge – whisper, only bass and synth] I don't want to seem. I want to be. But there's nothing to be. Nothing to be with. Just keep breathing this dust. Until the moon goes out. [Final chorus – full, voice cracks, then fade] [Outro – tape loop of clocks, piano note, whisper] ...nothing.
