[Intro] They tell me to cope with it Like coping makes the damage disappear Like pain becomes imaginary If nobody else can hear it So I cope with it [Verse 1] I've got a back that keeps reminding me Exactly where my limits are Every movement is a negotiation Every staircase feels disproportionately hard They write it off as inactivity As if that's the origin and end But how the fuck am I supposed to move When movement is what hurts me again It's a circular pathology A self-sustaining contradiction Pain prevents the motion Motion's supposed to fix the condition So I sit Then I hurt Then I eat Then I gain Then I move even less Then I sit again And everybody sees the outcome Never sees the mechanism Just a shut-in in a bedroom With a television for a prison [Chorus] Cope with it That's what everybody tells me Cope with it Like the problem isn't underneath me I'm trapped inside a feedback loop And every exit has a cost The longer that I stay immobile The more of myself I've lost Cope with it Yeah, I'll cope with it somehow I'm getting good at disappearing While I'm still here right now [Verse 2] I eat because I'm sedentary I'm sedentary because I hurt I hurt because I'm carrying the consequences Of everything that came first It's almost fucking mathematical A sequence with no termination Consumption, pain, immobility Then increased deterioration I know the fucking irony I can see the contradiction I'm simultaneously the prisoner And part of the jurisdiction Food becomes a temporary anesthetic Comfort with a caloric denomination A momentary interruption To a chronic physical sensation Then the guilt arrives eventually As punctual as ever Another meal, another metric Another promise to do better But tomorrow needs a body That today has already spent So I postpone the rehabilitation Until postponement becomes permanent [Verse 3] And there's a television glowing Like a second artificial sun I've watched so many hours through it That I barely notice what I've become The room gets smaller every year Or maybe I'm just staying still The outside world keeps getting farther While the walls become familiar My eyesight's getting worse I can't see as far as I used to Everything beyond a certain distance Turns into a fucking blur Maybe it's the television Maybe it's genetics Maybe it's years of staring At artificial pixels until they're embedded I don't even know anymore And that's the part that scares me I can watch the world in perfect definition While reality gets harder to see [Pre-Chorus] They think I'm choosing isolation Like there's comfort in being stuck Like I wake up every morning And decide I don't give a fuck But confinement doesn't always need a lock Sometimes the lock is pain Sometimes it's shame Sometimes it's appetite Sometimes it's your own fucking frame [Chorus] Cope with it That's what everybody tells me Cope with it Like coping makes the damage disappear I'm trapped inside a feedback loop And every exit has a cost The longer that I stay immobile The more of myself I've lost Cope with it Yeah, I'll cope with it somehow I'm getting good at disappearing While I'm still here right now [Bridge] Maybe that's what makes it tragic Nothing here is independent Every symptom feeds another Every consequence becomes precedent Pain creates the inactivity Inactivity creates the weight The weight reinforces all the pain And suddenly I'm running late Late to living Late to moving Late to seeing where I'm going Late to becoming someone Who can leave this fucking room And they ask me why I don't just change Like change is an isolated variable Like I'm not fighting an ecosystem Of consequences I've accumulated One decision at a time [Final Chorus] Cope with it That's the prescription they prescribe Ignore the pain Ignore the weight Ignore the way the years go by Cope with it Until coping is the only thing I know Until the room becomes my universe And everything outside becomes a silhouette Cope with it I'm trying to I swear I am But if surviving this is coping Then I've been coping all I can [Outro] The screen is getting brighter The room is getting dark My back is getting weaker And I can't see very far They tell me to cope with it So I do I sit down I eat I watch I hurt I sleep And tomorrow I cope with it again
