Lyric

Floor three: lights on, hallway bare

Floor five: open door, nothing there

Late shift humming in my bones

Elevator sings in broken tones

Plastic panel full of little moons

Every circle promising a room

Doors slide open on a carpeted hush

Stacked-up offices without a rush

Nameplates shining in a sterile row

But not a single face I know

Every ding another chance

To step into some other life

But the air is thin and stale

And the future doesn’t bite

I ride this steel-lined, humming spine

Counting all the chances I leave behind

Elevator to empty floors

Stopping where the quiet roars

If no one’s waiting past these doors

Am I rising or just circling more?

Reflections stacked in the chrome handrail

Different angles of the same old fail

My tired eyes in flickering light

Look like someone else tonight

Emergency map with the exits marked

Little arrows in fluorescent sparks

Shows me every way to run

But not a place where I belong

Every floor could be a scene

Where I finally get it right

Still the corridors are blank

Like the pages that I spiked

I ride this steel-lined, humming spine

Counting all the versions I leave behind

Elevator to empty floors

Stopping where the quiet roars

If no one’s waiting past these doors

Am I rising or just circling more?

Maybe all these unclaimed spaces

Are the rooms I never needed

All the titles on the walls

Were just names I never pleaded

If I step out just one time

On a floor that has no plan

I might find a window view

Wide enough to hold who I am

Every level that I pass

Still gets written in my veins

I can walk on solid ground

Even if it has no name

I ride this steel-lined, humming spine

Owning every ghost I left behind

Elevator to empty floors

No more running from the quiet roar

If no one’s waiting past these doors

I’ll step out and call this “mine” once more

Floor me: open door, silent air

Still I breathe and know I’m there