[Verse 1]
The dawn comes pale through wet leaves
I woke at five-twenty in the rain
Karen lent me a bicycle
At the intersection in the dream

[Verse 2]
Glass walls overlooking laboratories
A food stall in the corridor, centrifuges hum
We were meant to meet at five-thirty
In a small lab I never came to

[Chorus]
This is the holding and the going
The map you're standing on
You only see the shape of it
The moment that it's gone

[Verse 3]
I am milling through the throbbing corridor
Every staircase is a circle home
What the dreaming brain assembles
The waking brain will scatter or disown

[Chorus]
This is the holding and the going
The map you're standing on
You only see the shape of it
The moment that it's gone

[Bridge]
The waking brain comes in like a slamming door
Says you don't need this, says you don't need that
Says where you were is not where you live now
And it closes off the way back
[cello swells beneath last line]

[Instrumental Break]
[cello sustained, rain returns beneath sparse guitar]

[Verse 4]
I made a recording of a thing already passing
It disappeared, and then it didn't disappear
A coin returned to a pocket I had emptied
The Geist I had let go of — turned up here

[Final Chorus]
This is the holding and the going
The map you're standing on
You only see the shape of it
The moment that it's gone

[Outro]
[rain steady, vocal softens, cello low and held]
Now the ducks are flapping water from their wings
The day arrives when dreams are gone
The holding and the going
The holding and the going on