988
- GRACE PERIOD: TWO WEEKS
- AWARENESS POSTED
- AFTERMATH UNATTENDED
“Everyone loves a survivor when survival photographs well”
The same crisis seen from the outside, by the people who were watching. Everyone cared for two weeks, while the story still had a shape. Then the grace period expired, and the aftermath arrived with nobody to receive it.
The song is about awareness as a performance: care posted in stories that vanish in twenty-four hours, reach out said as if reaching were weightless. 988 is the number of the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the United States, and the track ends on its automated greeting, rewritten.
LYRICS / TRANSCRIPT
Verse 1
For the first two weeks
Everybody gave a fuck
Were they worried or just curious?
Guess they found another plot
By the time the smoke had cleared
No one had the time it cost
Pre-Chorus
While the story had a shape
There was somewhere they could stand
Aftermath comes in with no shape at all
And nobody knows where to put their hands
Chorus
They gave me a grace period
Long enough to bleed
Mercy for the emergency
No room for what stayed
The grace period expired
Before the aftermath came
Verse 2
You don't have to want me ruined
You just like the balance that way
Hold me next to all your good news
Let the contrast have its way
You can love me as a warning
You can post me as a cause
You can pity me for sport
Pre-Chorus
If I laugh, I'm overdoing it
If I ask, I asked too late
If I leave, it's just dramatic
If I stay, I'm in the way
Every way I learned to carry it
Is a symptom now to them
Chorus
They gave me a grace period
Long enough to crack
Long enough to call me brave
While they waited for me to bounce back
Bridge
Everybody says reach out
Like the reaching isn't the weight
You want to listen, you really do
With your phone lit up in your face
You care in stories that expire
Twenty-four hours, then it's gone
I'm easier as awareness
Than as someone in your hall
If I ask, I asked too late
If I stay, I'm in the way
You can stand beside the damage
While the damage has a face
Everyone loves a survivor
When survival photographs well
No one wants the nervous system
Still ringing after the bell
Chorus
They gave me a grace period
Long enough to bleed
Mercy for the emergency
No room for what stayed
The grace period expired
Before the aftermath came
And I'm still in it
(Still in it)
Outro
Every trick that kept me breathing
Is a problem to explaaaa-aaa-ain
Everything that got me through it
Looks em-ba-rra-ssing to-daaaay
(Aaah-ah-ah-aaah)
"Hello, you've just reached 988 Lifeline
Press 1 to fuck off"
- ARTIST
- Haylie Ferguson
- EDITION
- the bell jar: victoria lucas
- LABEL
- Maison Oblique Entertainment