What Is Value (Crash)

Lyrics

What was it…
that we all agreed on?
This weight in the hand.
This promise, sealed.

I remember the sound of it.
Clear as a bell from a distant church.
A solid ring.
The heft of a silver dollar, warm from a father’s pocket.
A ledger book, with lines drawn straight and true.
Black ink on white paper.
A signature at the bottom of the page, a knot tied.
It held.
We believed it held.

But what is value, now?
When the thread frays in your fingers?
What is value, now?
When the mirror shows you a thousand broken faces?
Is it just a story we whisper in the dark?
Hoping the person next to us believes it too?

The numbers flicker on a screen.
A new god, with zeroes for eyes.
We saw the yachts, the cartoon apes, the easy fortunes.
We heard the promises of impossible returns.
The sound is different now.
Not a bell, but the shriek of a train's brakes.
The floorboards beneath our feet are groaning.
The ink runs, the knot loosens.
It was never tied at all.

So what is value, now?
When the thread frays in your fingers?
What is value, now?
When the mirror shows you a thousand broken faces?
Is it just a story we whisper in the dark?
Hoping the person next to us believes it too?

I held it up to the light.
The coin, the bill, the digital contract.
And I saw straight through it.
I saw the air on the other side.
Saw the empty hands of the one who offered it.
I saw my own empty hands.
It's just faith.
It was always… just faith.

What is…
…value?
When the crash comes.
When the bell… cracks.