Verse 1
She moves without making a sound Hands like weather, wrists like vows The room rearranges at her feet And every secret changes how it bows You think you hold the thread of her But she holds the way the strings unwind And every puppet in your theater Feels the gravity of her design
Pre-Chorus
She learned to read the hands that move She learned to find the place they pull She watches them perform their parts And smiles when they unspool
Chorus
Marionettes and puppets Dancing on the edge of her smile Marionettes and puppets Thinking they’ll control a while But every string she touches Is a map to something truer Marionettes and puppets She doesn’t need them to be newer
Verse 2
You trace the pattern of her steps You mark the moments she decides You raise your glass to celebrate The show you think you will not mind But when the curtain falls for real You find your hands are suddenly free Except there’s nothing left to hold Except the memory of her and me
Bridge
The thing about the strings Is that they taught themselves to sing And now the audience is clapping To the echo of the thing
Final Chorus
Marionettes and puppets Dance until the daylight frays Marionettes and puppets Break whenever she says And you’ll remember how you danced To the way she turned the light Marionettes and puppets We learned to move by sight