The Zeitgeber (Chronos)

Lyrics

[Intro]

Jürgen, in Seewiesen's dim bunker, 1965,
you sealed us from the sun's cue.
This mechanical clock, its ticking a false heartbeat.

[Verse 1]
Dear actigraph on my wrist, cold metal band,
strapped tight since that first artificial dawn at 6 AM.
The air recycled, stale with metallic tang,
constant 20 degrees Celsius pressing on my skin.
I count the meals, irregular, no rhythm to guide,
yet my body drifts, days stretching to 30 hours.
Chronos, you old weaver, unraveling in the dark.

[Chorus]
Zeitgeber, where are you now?
Light's absence pulls my internal tide.
Free-running, I chase a New Year born from within,
detached from calendars, from the world's spin.
In this windowless room, time bends soft.

[Verse 2]
Aschoff's notes, scribbled under flickering bulbs,
track my sleep-wake cycles gone awry.
The bunker walls, concrete embrace,
echo the hum of air filters, endless night.
I feel the gradient shift, endogenous pull,
no thermal cues, no birdsong at false 10 PM.
You, little clock, with your relentless hands,
can't reset what the neurons hoard.

[Bridge]

Remember the volunteers, unnamed in your papers,
students curled in cots, dreaming of real dawns.
Their rhythms freed, a psychological toll unpaid,
gaps in the record where emotions hid.
Chronos laughs, time's not linear here.

[Verse 3]
In Max Planck's halls, that isolation chamber,
I celebrate my private solstice, alone.
The actigraph records my wandering pulse,
while outside, seasons turn without me.
Jürgen, did you feel it too, the detachment?
A small strange fact: my year begins anew.

[Chorus]
Zeitgeber, where are you now?
Light's absence pulls my internal tide.
Free-running, I chase a New Year born from within,
detached from calendars, from the world's spin.
In this windowless room, time bends soft.

[Outro]

Chronos, in the bunker, we surrender to the flow.