Orange light on lashes
Threading borrowed obedience
Face learned only bowing angles
“Dear customer, smile softer,” whispers

Same old phrases line shadows again
Like greenhouse cattle
“Never wrong, never unhappy”
Joked in a hush
Applause measuring thought

Gloss-coated dolls with pasted smiles
Stamping approval on stacked-up hearts
Library ashes worn like perfume
“Happiness is duty” through glowing screens
Everyone pretending this is new world

Prayers scratched in subway walls
Those who called them beautiful grew old first
Still here, playing keys


Again the rumor goes
“Freedom never existed anyway”
Still, believing cages become freedom
I play piano
Words edited into noise
Only applause grows louder

Showcase mannequins dancing
Praised for posture alone
True feelings shoved beneath tongues
Too trained to doubt happiness


Number tags swing from ceiling
Roles handed out before names
Wiping ink from fingertips
Dropping nameless feelings onto keys


If I tore crimson ribbon
Sewn beneath spine
Would ballroom still keep turning?

Mismatched shoes and all
Would you still dance?
Or sink beneath velvet too
Like this world did


Step in line ? one, two, three
Smiling dolls grin perfectly
Singing same old love
Like broken gramophones
Still, somebody’s tears miss the step
Another scream drowned in applause

Like sealed letters never opened
Exitless hearts rot slowly
Worn-out words tell the rest


Voice swallowed into velvet
Still spreading through somebody’s silence
Like footsteps trained to correctness
Surely dreaming electric sheep in color
Still raised inside transparent cradle

Painted dolls keep calling true names
Someday forgetting their own worlds too
Melody nobody chose already knew



If someone rewound spring inside my chest
Made me remember burned history
Would singing it still earn love?
Or finally make me human?