[Intro — workplace party noise, lead voice polite] Nice lights. Nice people. Nice little paper stars. Somebody laughs across the room. I know exactly where we are. [Verse 1 — restrained] Silver garland in the break room, Paper cups and borrowed cheer. Someone laughs behind my shoulder. I can feel the target from here. They ask if I have settled in. I show the smile that says I have. Everybody gets to be careless. I get graded on the aftermath. You left me holding every promise, Then said my hands were holding tight. People get to strike the match, Then ask me why I notice light. [Pre-Chorus] Maybe I'm wrong. Then why can I remember every word? Maybe it's nothing. Nothing doesn't line up like this. [Chorus — simple, clean, reasonable] All you get is the smile. I keep the teeth underneath. Everybody here looks harmless. Everybody looks guilty to me. All you get is the smile. Clean white proof I can behave. Everybody likes me easy. Nobody asks what easy takes. [Verse 2 — distortion begins creeping in; five-line stanza is intentional] The neighbor holds a look too long. The room goes quiet when I enter, Like a room that's been rehearsing. Holiday lights blink in the windows Like they all agreed to remember. I keep the dates inside my phone. Not revenge—just memory. Forgiveness without a record Is how people get to rewrite me. I take the fastest way back home. It happens to pass your street. The map suggests another road. The map does not know what I need. [Pre-Chorus 2] Maybe I imagined it. Then why does every piece fit? Maybe they're not talking. Then why do they stop when I listen? [Chorus — heavier] All you get is the smile. I keep the teeth underneath. Everybody here looks harmless. Everybody looks guilty to me. All you get is the smile. Clean white proof I can behave. Everybody likes me easy. Nobody asks what easy takes. [Bridge — drops nearly silent, then builds] Fear says, "I was early." Anger says, "I was right." Every locked door had a reason. Every reason comes alive at night. I write three lines. Then all the lines behind them. I sharpen every maybe into knew. One line is true. One line I built Because the true one wasn't landing. I send the truth so hard It changes shape Before it reaches you. I read it once for accuracy. I read it twice for nerve. I gave you every chance. [Break — spoken, one word, a bar of silence — do not fill it] Delivered. [Checking pulse only] No dots. Check. [Final Chorus — clench over the checking pulse; one crack in the certainty] All you got was the smile. Now you get the teeth underneath. Everybody here looked guilty— You just happened to be nearest. All you got was the smile. I kept the teeth where no one saw. I wanted proof that I was right. Proof doesn't care who it's for. [Outro — distortion falls away; checking pulse between thoughts] The engine idles. The screen goes black. I read the message once again. The anger sounds like someone else. My thumb pressed send. Everybody here looked guilty. Now the evidence is me. Maybe that's what you wanted. Maybe that proves what I mean. No dots. Check.
