Stress Pattern

[Verse 1]
You trace the grout on the Plattenbau wall,
your thumbnail scratching on the calcium line.
The November air bites at your jaw
while the Prager Straße lights start to climb.

[Chorus]
And it's a beautiful, strange design,
the way you hold the whole world on that line.

[Verse 2]
He told you once, "it's just a technical flaw,"
and now you're testing the tensile strength of the law
that says a body in motion just stays that way,
pacing the same ten metres of concrete grey.

[Chorus]
And it's a beautiful, strange design,
the way you hold the whole world on that line.

[Bridge]
I learned about failure loads from a man I don't call,
the elegant torsion before the fall.
But I've never seen scaffolding built with such grace,
just from the focus held there on your face.

[Outro]
A strange design...
on that line.