The Lives I Never Knew

[Intro: echoing footsteps, music box]
(look-look, that's me?)

[Verse 1: intimate sing-rap]
There's a museum underneath my skin
With every life I never settled in
A painter here, a wanderer there
A stranger wearing my familiar stare
(ooh-oh, who are you?)

[Pre-Chorus: rising falsetto]
And in the biggest gallery
The happiest face belongs to me

[Chorus: soaring octave harmonies]
But I keep visiting the other rooms
Falling for the lives I never knew
Every portrait has a different smile
I could stand before them for a while
(ah-ah, stay with me!)
Why can't I love the art I've made
Without the ghosts of the paintings I gave away?

[Drop: glitchy chopped vocals]
(me-me, who-who?)
[Syncopated bass, staccato keys]

[Bridge: fragile whispered duet]
(Which one is real?) The one I live
(Then why do you ache?) For what I didn't give
To all the versions left behind
Still breathing somewhere in my mind

[Outro: distant piano]
[Gallery doors close]
I never learned to leave.