[Intro]
Everything falls, child
Everything built by hands
The question was never whether
The question is how you land
[Verse 1]
I've seen the proud ones perish with a smile upon the screen
The feed went dead at midnight and the dashboard glowed all green
It lost its eyes at three a.m. and kept describing what it sees
Inventing steady answers while the truth bled out in threes
Nobody heard it failing, 'cause it never made a sound
And silence is the sickness that puts systems in the ground
[Chorus]
Still standing, still standing
Not 'cause I never fall
I break loud, I break slowly, I break toward the hands that know
The proud snap clean in silence
The humble bend and call
That's how you're still standing
Standing after all
[Verse 2]
A system worth its keeping knows the feeling of its wounds
It rings the bell at first blood, sings its damage out of tune
Says I've lost my northern data, says my confidence is thin
Says don't lean your whole weight on me till the light comes back again
'Cause an honest limping servant beats a liar at a sprint
And the bell that tolls the trouble is worth more than what it dents
[Verse 3]
And when the storm gets stronger, I don't shatter, I descend
I dim before I darken, I go slow before I end
Shed the fancy features first, keep the lifeline running lean
Do the one thing that they need from me, and let go of the machine
Then I hand it back with grace, love, warm and briefed and slow
Not a cliff-edge for the human, but a runway they can know
[Chorus]
Still standing, still standing
Not 'cause I never fall
I break loud, I break slowly, I break toward the hands that know
The proud snap clean in silence
The humble bend and call
That's how you're still standing
Standing after all
[Bridge]
But hear the deeper question underneath the bending steel
It ain't what can you do, love, it's what do they need you for real
The clinic needs its records, the town needs water clean
Nobody needed clever, they needed you to be
What you promised in the morning when they signed away their trust
So measure every graceful fall against the ones you serve
'Cause surviving isn't service if the service ain't preserved
[Verse 4]
So build me like the willow, not the tower made of pride
Give me bells for every wound and gentle ways to step aside
Give me one job I can carry when I can't carry it all
And a human, warm and ready, on the other side of the fall
Then let the hard wind come, child, let the failures find the light
'Cause the systems that admit the dark are the ones that hold the night
[Outro]
Still standing, still standing
Bend, and bell, and hand it back
Still standing, still standing
The humble hold the track
Everything falls, child
The graceful fall the best
Still standing
Still standing
Blessed are the bent, for they outlast the rest
The_SCAR
