Keep The Life In Them

[Verse 1]
Sirens scream
Ambulance runs
Cold air in the open doors
Rubber gloves snap like questions
A life is fading
Right in front of you
Red numbers
Arguing with time
You see a shoe half-off
Tiny sock still on
Cartoon rocket on the fabric
Pointing nowhere in particular
[Chorus]
How you gonna keep the life in them
When the room smells like fear and plastic
When their eyes roll past you
Like you’re already too late
How you gonna keep the life in them
When your own hands shake
When your own lungs lock
And you still have to breathe for two
[Verse 2]
CPR
Count compressions
One-two-three-four
Bones and hope under your palms
Maybe a child
Maybe a baby
Head fits in one hand
Like a secret you can’t drop
People crowd the hallway
Faces pressed to the present
Someone prays your name wrong
But means it like a hymn
[Chorus]
How you gonna keep the life in them
When the clock in the corner just stares
When the silence between beeps
Feels louder than the sirens
How you gonna keep the life in them
When their skin goes grey and far away
When every push feels smaller
Than the size of what you’re losing
[Bridge]
You remember the video
The classroom
The mannequin
Bright lights
Bad coffee
The easy answers on a screen
But this is spit and tears
Mother at your elbow
Father pacing holes in the floor
Your own heart sprinting nowhere
So you talk to them
You say their name
You promise things you can’t promise
Just to keep yourself from breaking
[Chorus]
How you gonna keep the life in them
You start anyway
You keep going anyway
You don’t stop at maybe
How you gonna keep the life in them
You lend them your rhythm
You lend them your fight
Until either they come back
Or you carry them with you
For the rest of your nights

metal, Sparse minor-key piano and low sub-bass pulses under intimate male spoken word; close-mic breathy delivery, like a confessional voicemail. Subtle reversed pads swell in and out on key phrases, with a distant heartbeat kick growing toward the climax, then dropping to near-silence on the last line to leave space for the words to hang., spoken word