Hole in My Heart

[Intro]
[Instrumental: Soft Piano, Echo Guitar, Slow Bass Pulse, Distant Drum Hit]
[Spoken Vocal]
Not all systems fail gradually.
Some fail at the seams.
Where everything seemed intact…
then is no longer what it means.

[Verse 1]
We were running steady rhythm
(A stable kind of day)
Nothing in the signal
(Suggested it would sway)

Then a tiny misalignment
(A fraction out of place)
Turned into a rupture
(We could not erase)

[Pre-Chorus]
All at once
(Not in time)
All at once
(Undefined)

[Chorus]
Really?
Is that what you’re gonna do
(Shoot it straight through)
Suddenly…
(The start:)
Hole in my heart

A structure I depended on
(Just falls apart)
Hole in my heart

[Refrain]
BOOM!
(Sudden failure)
I can’t endure
Soon!
(And that’s for sure)
For certain: future
Becomes obscure

[Verse 2]
It wasn’t slow erosion
It wasn’t wear and tear
It was a single moment
That fractured all the air

The feedback loops collapsed in
A cascade out of sight
And everything went silent
Between the wrong and right

[Pre-Chorus]
No warning
(No sign)
No warning
(Declined)

[Chorus]
Really?
Is that what you’re gonna do
(Shoot it straight through)
Suddenly…
(The start:)
Hole in my heart

(The system breaks without a sound)
Down, down, down
(… falls apart)
Hole in my heart

[Refrain]
BOOM!
(Sudden failure)
I can’t endure
Soon!
(And that’s for sure)
Nothing feels secure

[Bridge]
[Music Drops to Sparse Piano and Low Drone]
Some failures are gradual
Others are binary
A threshold crossed without apology
No time to inventory
What held together yesterday
Does not imply today
The structure chooses its collapse
In its own sudden way

[Build]
Snap…
(No delay)
Break…
(No say)
Shift…
(Away)
And nothing stays the same

[Instrumental Break]
[Distorted Guitar Burst]
[Echoed Drum Impact]

[Final Chorus]
Really?
Is that what you’re gonna do
(Shoot it straight through)
Suddenly…
(The start:)
Hole in my heart

(No warning written in the sky)
No more asking and asking why…
(No time to start)
Hole in my heart
[Break in the music]
BOOM!
(Sudden failure)
I can’t endure
Soon!
(And that’s for sure)
Nothing stays secure

[Outro]
[Soft Piano, Fading Echo]
Sometimes the first sign of instability…
is collapse.
(No time lapse)
A hole is not an absence of structure.
It is the moment structure disappears.
(The absence appears)
Depart…
(Hole in my heart…)
[Silence]

From the album Cracked Windshield