Sawtooth Grin

[Chorus]
The sawtooth wave is a grin without the humor, a jagged line
The filter sweep is a low-passed rumor that he's doing fine
The oscillator drifts a quarter-cent, a temperature shift in the room
Building a garden in the back house just to cultivate the gloom

[Verse 1]
Seven years to the Tuesday, I can still feel the static hum
From the vintage Moog you left me 'fore the silence had become
The only language that we spoke, the air between the dial tones
A legacy of circuits, a quiet violence in the bones
You taught me signal flow, the patch bay logic, every algorithm
Then rerouted my sister’s future, a cold subtraction in the rhythm
Now I'm twisting up these cold knobs, tryna find a frequency
That don't carry the resonance of your specific treachery

[Chorus]
The sawtooth wave is a grin without the humor, a jagged line
The filter sweep is a low-passed rumor that he's doing fine
The oscillator drifts a quarter-cent, a temperature shift in the room
Building a garden in the back house just to cultivate the gloom

[Verse 2]
The only keys I touch now got this dust between the ivories
Changed the deadbolt on the screen door, still got your wiring inside of me
This bougainvillea on the stucco got thorns for a good reason
A root system running under concrete, fighting off an invasive season
I map the anger on the sequencer, sixteen steps of letting go
Each hi-hat a sharp inhale, the 808 a rumbling 'no'
It’s a strange inheritance, this instinct for the perfect sound
From a man who'd burn the whole crop just to poison the ground

[Bridge]
“Son, find the root note,” you told me, voice full of bourbon and pride
Funny how you gotta prune the sickest branch to let the sun inside
This skeleton key you gave me fits a lock I had to break
For my own damn sake.

[Outro]
Just the hum. The low C.
Unforgiving.