Lyric

The velvet curtain fell before the cue

The string was cut, and off the stage you flew

Into the dark, beyond my wooden sight

I sensed the rot within your porcelain chest

A fragile hairline crack you never confessed

I wove my words in riddles, soft and light

To say "the stage is safe," to hold you tight

But clockwork gears don't wait for rewriting the night

The play goes on, the spotlight burns my skin

I cannot freeze, the waltz must now begin

Though you are dancing in a distant hall

Where my scarred hands can never reach your waist

I pray your joints find ease, your fears erased

Even if it takes a thousand winters' fall

To mend the paint, to standing straight and tall

In that strange wings where my name they never call

Did my sharp edges chip your golden crown?

Did my cold shadow weigh your slippers down?

Perhaps I was the thorn that made you bleed

But count the ghosts who watched us from the tiers

Their hollow eyes are nourished by my tears

For them, the show must run at breathless speed

Even if my flawed enamel starts to flake

And all this cheap, distorted gilding breaks

To breath is to corrode another’s frame

Just by existing, we inflict the pain

A tragic flaw in every doll designed

So through this frozen pane, this blue-lit wall

We press our fingertips, and watch the rainfall

A sanitized touch, a barrier aligned

To keep the venom from the hearts behind

Yet still, the glass grows warm with wounds unsigned

The strings are pulled, the grand piano cries

A mechanical truth beneath the starry skies

I cannot stop, the music will not bend

Through chipped veneer and glass, until the end