Wedding of a Thousand Futures

[Intro]
(Tense, clipped electronic percussion)
(Slap bass notes popping on the offbeats)

[Verse 1]
A thousand paths in the chapel light
Every version of me is dressed in white
Standing at the altar, shoulder to shoulder
While the clock on the wall gets older and colder
If I take your hand and I say "I do"
I'm leaving nine hundred lives behind with you
Every choice is a shadow, every step is a ghost
The ones that we love, and the ones we hurt most

[Chorus]
But I can't say "I do" without breaking a heart!
(Interlocking offbeat bass, sharply accented drums)
Every road not taken is torn apart!
At the wedding of a thousand futures today
We throw all our other tomorrows away
Yeah, we throw them away!
(Elastic fretless bass fill answers the vocal)

[Verse 2]
I see the doctor, the drifter, the king
All of them waiting for this single ring
A gallery of ghosts watching the vows
With quiet eyes, wondering how
We choose one thread in a tangled skein
And let the rest wash away in the rain
To claim one joy is to seal their fate
At the altar of chance, at the narrow gate

[Chorus]
But I can't say "I do" without breaking a heart!
(Interlocking offbeat bass, sharply accented drums)
Every road not taken is torn apart!
At the wedding of a thousand futures today
We throw all our other tomorrows away
Yeah, we throw them away!
(Elastic fretless bass fill answers the vocal)

[Bridge]
(Shifting time signature: odd-meter instrumental pivot)
(Intricate guitar patterns weave through syncopated fretless slap bass)
Which version of me survives the night?
Which future is wrong, which future is right?
(Bass and drums pull tighter, building tension)

[Chorus]
But I can't say "I do" without breaking a heart!
(Interlocking offbeat bass, sharply accented drums)
Every road not taken is torn apart!
At the wedding of a thousand futures today
We throw all our other tomorrows away
Yeah, we throw them away!

[Outro]
Just one ring, just one life
One husband, one wife
The other nine hundred fade into the dark...
(Clipped percussion slows to a single heartbeat)
(Fretless bass slides down, fading out)