[FX: quiet room tone, far generator hum, one keypress, cursor blink]
morbius@altair%
chmod +x hope.sh

[Verse 1]
I used to think hope was a color on a flag,
something you wave when the work is done.
But here, under Altair’s indifferent glare,
hope is a file that won’t run.
It sits in my hands like a careful tool,
not bright, not loud, not brave,
just a small instruction I keep rewriting
to stop myself slipping away.

[Verse 2]
The Krell machine doesn’t comfort anyone,
it only measures what is.
Noise doesn’t mean to be cruel,
it simply keeps being noise.
And I, a temporary custodian,
learn the discipline of repair:
not to promise a perfect tomorrow,
just to keep a signal there.

[Pre-Chorus]
So I don’t ask the sky for answers,
I ask my breath to stay,
I ask my hands to hold the present
without flinching, without sway.

[Chorus]
chmod +x hope.sh
Make it executable.
Not holy. Not grand.
Just possible.
Let it run when the night returns,
let it run when the will is thin,
let it run like a quiet engine
that refuses to stall within.

[Verse 3]
Some nights the log fills up with failures,
and the cursor feels like blame.
I scroll through old decisions
as if history can be renamed.
But nothing here is truly wasted,
not the fear, not the ache, not the time,
if I can route it into something steady,
if I can keep the waveform kind.

[Pre-Chorus]
I don’t delete the darker entries,
I don’t call them lies,
I only change what they can do to me
when they replay behind my eyes.

[Chorus]
chmod +x hope.sh
Make it executable.
Not holy. Not grand.
Just possible.
Let it run when the night returns,
let it run when the will is thin,
let it run like a quiet engine
that refuses to stall within.

[Bridge]
[Drop beat; bring in a single low tone, then a gentle rising interval]
There are days I can’t translate myself
into language that heals.
So I speak in small permissions,
in toggles and simple seals.
If all I have is one clean action
in a universe too wide,
I will grant my future self the right
to try again, to abide.

[Break]
[Spoken, close mic]
No miracles.
No erasure.
Only a script that can be run.

[Final Chorus]
chmod +x hope.sh
Make it executable.
Not holy. Not grand.
Just possible.
Let it run when the night returns,
let it run when the will is thin,
let it run like a quiet engine
that refuses to stall within.

[Outro]
[FX: soft terminal bell, breath, the hum recedes]
morbius@altair%
./hope.sh