Paper Ballot

[Verse 1]
The line wrapped around the Kenwood gym,
back in November '20.
Each breath a ghost on the freezing rim
of a sky with no structural integrity.
The door handle burned right through my palm,
smelled of floor wax and wet wool.

[Pre-Chorus]
And we all stood like a load-bearing wall
Holding up something fragile.

[Chorus]
Just a paper ballot, a flimsy design,
A little torque on the grand machine.
It was exhausted hope in a straight line,
The quietest scream you've ever seen.

[Verse 2]
Now it’s freeway glare on a Tuesday drive,
different weather, same static.
I watch the futures that didn't arrive
on a screen in the attic.
The grid still hums with a low-grade dread,
there's latency in the system.

[Pre-Chorus]
And I map the fractures inside my head,
praying I somehow missed one.

[Chorus]
Just a paper ballot, a flimsy design,
A little torque on the grand machine.
It was exhausted hope in a straight line,
The quietest scream you've ever seen.

[Bridge]
My mom texted, "Any signal yet?"
And I didn't know which one she meant.
The noise floor's high, it's easy to forget.

[Outro]
The quietest scream...
Still screaming...