Paper Wings

[Intro]
(soft, airy, wordless, distant and cold)
Ah... ah... ah...
 
[Verse 1]
(ethereal, restrained, weary)
I count the hours like they're gold
Trading pieces of myself, watching time grow old
Every dollar opens up a door
But behind it waits another, always one door more
 
[Pre-Chorus]
(quiet ache, not building to triumph — building to exhaustion)
I wanted wings, not chains
I wanted rivers, not these walls I built again
 
[Chorus]
(heavy, resigned, sung with weight rather than release — not a victory, an admission)
Paper wings won't let me fly
Chasing freedom I can't buy
Every dollar, another tie
Paper wings, paper wings, still can't fly
 
[Post-Chorus]
(wordless, hollow, echoing into silence)
Ah... ah... ah...
 
[Verse 2]
(ethereal, restrained, quietly bitter)
I built a life on IOUs
Told myself just one more year, I'd break these avenues
But comfort has a heavy price
Every raise just built the cage a little colder, twice
 
[Pre-Chorus]
(quiet ache, not building to triumph — building to exhaustion)
I wanted wings, not chains
I wanted rivers, not these walls I built again
 
[Chorus]
(heavy, resigned, sung with weight rather than release — not a victory, an admission)
Paper wings won't let me fly
Chasing freedom I can't buy
Every dollar, another tie
Paper wings, paper wings, still can't fly
 
[Bridge]
(the emotional low point — hushed, almost broken, minimal instrumentation)
Maybe freedom's not a number
Maybe it was never out there
Maybe I've just been sleepwalking
Underneath this gilded air
Maybe there's no waking from it
 
[Final Chorus]
(biggest drop of the song, but heavy and dark rather than euphoric — weight, not
celebration; the melancholy should feel bigger, not resolved)
Paper wings won't let me fly
Chasing freedom I can't buy
Every dollar, another tie
Paper wings, paper wings, still can't fly
 
[Outro]
(wordless, fading into silence — deliberately unresolved, no comfort at the end)
Ah... ah... ah...
Still can't fly...