Barely Holding On

[Verse 1]
Coffee’s cold
Name on the cup is wrong
I stare at it
Like it’s been there all along
Keys on the hook
Can’t recall how I got home
Joke with the bartender
’Bout talking to my phone (mm)
[Chorus]
I’m barely holding on
Thread through my fingers, slipping slow
Name all the streets I’m walking down
But I don’t know where they go
I’m laughing at the lines I cross
Like it’s all some crooked sign
Everybody says I’m fine
I’m just losing my mind
One little piece at a time
[Verse 2]
Left my hat
On a stranger’s chair last week
He waved it from the doorway
Like he’d known me for a week
Faces blur
Like water on the glass
I call you by your old name
You forgive it, let it pass (oh)
[Chorus]
I’m barely holding on
Thread through my fingers, slipping slow
Name all the streets I’m walking down
But I don’t know where they go
I’m laughing at the lines I cross
Like it’s all some crooked sign
Everybody says I’m fine
I’m just losing my mind
One little piece at a time
[Bridge]
[Band swells, trumpet answers vocal phrases]
I used to be the one
Who always knew the way back home
Now I’m counting all the cracks
In the ceiling, in my bones
If I fade mid-sentence
Promise you’ll still stay
Catch my wandering questions
Guide them back my way (yeah)
[Chorus]
I’m barely holding on
Thread through my fingers, slipping slow
Name all the streets I’m walking down
But I don’t know where they go
I’m laughing at the lines I cross
Like it’s all some crooked sign
Everybody says I’m fine
I’m just losing my mind
One little piece at a time
[Outro]
[Band settles, brushes and soft piano]
Coffee’s cold
Say my name, I’ll say it too
If the rest of me goes wandering
Let the last of me be you

jazz, Smoky small-club jazz, live trio feel: brushed snare and upright bass start sparse under warm male vocals, late-night piano voicings. Gradual dynamic rise as the band leans in—ride cymbal opens up, bass walks, piano grows more angular—then eases back to a fragile whisper at the end. Occasional muted trumpet fills answer the vocal lines, with room ambience and audience murmurs left in the mix., slow