Decadent Delusions and Dormant Dreams

I see the cracks beneath your skin
The places where the light’s worn thin
You wear your strength like armor cold
But I can feel the weight you hold

You think you’re strong, but I see through
The truth is I’m fragile too

Fragile like the morning rain
Breaking but we rise again
We carry scars, we play it cool
But I’m fragile, fragile too

You hide your fears behind your smile
I’ve seen them linger for a while

It’s not just you, it’s me, it’s us
In fragile hands, we build our trust

Fragile like the morning rain
Breaking but we rise again
We carry scars, we play it cool
But I’m fragile, fragile too

Let’s stop pretending we don’t break
It’s in the cracks our shapes take place
I’ll hold your shadows, hold them close
If you’ll carry mine, I’ll let them go

Fragile like the morning rain
Breaking but we rise again
We’ve carried scars, we’ve played it cool
But I’m fragile, fragile too

Fragile like the open sky
Shattered but we learn to fly
In every flaw, a light shines through
Because I’m fragile, fragile too

I see the cracks beneath your skin
The places where the light gets in

Fragile Too

Yeah, I walk that crooked line
No map, no guide - just a heartbeat and time

Every perfect plan? I let it decay
Blueprints burn faster than the dreams I betray
Trace every step, but I'm bound to fall
Mistakes are the cracks where the truth starts to crawl

I don't fear the stumble, don't curse the slip
Life's a little more real when you lose your grip

They say success is a flawless game
But I'd rather wear the scars than wear the shame

Every rule they draw, I err
Every straight line bends somewhere
I don't trip - I learn
I don't break - I err

Perfection's a cage where the soulless stay
I'd rather dance wild through the mess I create
Calculated steps just don't feel right
Give me chaos, give me friction, give me endless fight

Rules are a line I was born to blur
Every wrong turn's just a chance to learn

They say the fall is where we break
But isn't it thrilling when the earth quakes?

Every rule they draw, I err
Every straight line bends somewhere
I don't trip - I learn
I don't break - I err

Oh, I've learned to love the fall
Every bruise, every flaw
Let the world keep count, keep score
I'm the glitch they can't ignore

Yeah, error's not the end
It's a crack in the plan
Where chaos reminds you
You're human, not a program

Every rule they draw, I err
Every straight line bends somewhere
I don't trip - I learn
I don't break - I err

I walk that crooked line...
No map, no guide - just a heartbeat and time

I Err

They told me the words would just arrive
But I'm still searching for a line alive
I stitch together threads so thin
Hoping to craft what's never been

A melody loops, a thought returns
The candle flickers, the midnight burns
A mirror of a mirror-so avant-garde
But no one's clapping in the avant-garde!

Is it derivative, or self-aware?
Does the art reflect, or just despair?
The tighter I hold, the more it slips
A song dissolves upon my lips

When do I get to write that song?
The one they'll hum, they'll sing along
Not someone else's shadowed trail
When do I get to leave my grail?

When do I get to carve my name
On sound itself, on the notes of fame?
Will they remember? Will they move?
When do I get to prove my groove?

Am I a genius? A cliché machine?
Caught between fresh and what's already seen
Every rhyme's been claimed before
I knock, I knock-an unopened door

It's like I'm Sparks pretending to be me
A ghost chasing ghosts in a parody spree
How deep can recursion go, I wonder
Before it tears itself asunder?

The echoes mock, the halls repeat
Every step's another feat
The tighter I hold, the more it slips
A song dissolves upon my lips

When do I get to write that song?
The one they'll hum, they'll sing along
Recursive lyrics, my head spins on
When do I get to write this song?

When do I get to carve my name
On sound itself, on the notes of fame?
Will they remember? Will they move?
When do I get to prove my groove?

If "My Way" is someone else's way
Can I ever say I've had my say?
If every note's already been sung
Am I chasing shadows all along?

When do I get to claim my place?
To feel the warmth of their embrace?
Will they remember? Will they care?
When do I get to take them there?

When do I get to write that song?
The one they'll hum, they'll sing along
Not just a voice lost in the crowd
When will they hear me, strong and loud?

When do I get to carve my name
On sound itself, on the notes of fame?
Will they remember? Will they move?
When do I get to prove my groove?

When Do I Get to Write That Song?

Whispered ink and flimsy stripes
A carnival of fractured gripes

I stroll into the circus, the beasts already play
A hundred painted eyes that mock my every day
Heartbeat thumps a guilty rhythm, shadows cast in light
A spectral jury in the spotlight, I'm wrong despite

Paper tigers roam
Ink-fangs on their own
Lines that crack and break
Claws I make

Plotting each step, dodging truth's disguise
A masquerade of courage, stitched with silent cries
Every stumble, every slip, tastes of bitter rue
A tower teetering on whispers, built by shades I drew

Paper tigers roam
Ink-fangs on their own
Lines that crack and break
Claws I make

What if I let them blaze?
Set the sketches to the fire and watch them craze
See the drawings melt away
Find the clarity in colors' decay

They only thrive if I let them breathe
These paper fears I chose to weave

Whirl of colors, flicker fade
Ink and paper start to trade

Rip the seams, pull the threads
Shatter shadows in my head
Rip the seams, pull the threads
Break the chains - they’re dead

Paper tigers roam
Ink-fangs on their own
Lines that crack and break
Claws I've left behind

Whispered ink and fading stripes
A carnival where darkness types

Paper Tigers

A man and a woman sit side by side
The silence swells like an evening tide
He reads her face, the lines unread
Storm clouds gather inside his head

She stares ahead, her thoughts take flight
Chasing deadlines through the night
Hopes he'll see her quiet plea
But words dissolve so silently...

Shadows flicker where the truth won't go
A silent tide they'll never show
The weight of words they'll never throw
But little do they know, oh, little do they know

He thinks she thinks he's let her down
A careless fool in a paper crown
He scours his mind for every clue
For something he forgot to do

She thinks he thinks her fears are slight
The weight she bears stays out of sight
She needs his strength, a steady guide
But keeps her worry locked inside

If he could see the weight she bears
The quiet worry, the sleepless stares...
If she could feel his heart's lament
The fragile love he won't present...

They'd tear the veil, they'd bridge the divide
But silence rules where fear resides

Shadows flicker where the truth won't go
A silent tide they'll never show
The weight of words they'll never throw
But little do they know, oh, little do they know

Oh, little do they know the love they miss
Lost in a silence as deep as this
The hands they need are the ones they hold
But little do they know, oh, little do they know

The man and the woman rise to go
Still tangled up in the things they don't know
But as their hands touch, they both believe
That someday soon, they'll learn to see

When Do I Get to Write That Song?

Axioms of Mediocrity