The Parallax of Paws

[Intro]
[Verse]
Log entry: Midnight in the hall
Dust settles on the plaster wall
Glass eyes fixed on a fake snowfall
I dream of the great white haul
Nineteen-twenty-four, the wind was raw
Ice crystals cutting through my paw
Now I am a statue without a flaw
Bound by the taxidermist's law
[Pre-Chorus]
(Libretto: O, to be lost in the drift)
(Sotto voce: Give me the cold, a final gift)
I’d trade this velvet stand for the floe
To be buried where the lichens grow
[Chorus]
Stellar parallax, a shift in the view
Regret is the distance between me and you
Better to freeze in the deep blue crust
Than turn into museum shelf dust
Shift the angle, see the star move
We lost the rhythm, we lost the groove
Frozen forever in a silent pose
While the Arctic wind still blows
[Post-Chorus]
(Yodel-ay-ee-hoo!)
Aurora light in the distance
(Yodel-ay-ee-hoo!)
Breaking through my resistance
[Verse]
Exhibit placard says I was brave
But I’m just a ghost in a wooden grave
Cotton filling where my heart used to beat
Standing on these wired, static feet
Expedition leader had a heavy hand
Across the shifting, shimmering land
But even he didn't understand the cost
Of everything we truly lost
[Hook]
One inch left, the stars all change
One inch right, the world is strange
Parallax of a dog’s last sigh
Underneath a cold, revolving sky
[Bridge]
Triangulate the sorrow in my chest
I never got to take the final rest
If I stayed in the ice, I’d be whole
A jagged diamond with a sled-dog soul
Instead I’m here for the kids to see
A version of what I used to be
Distance is a trick of the light
In the middle of this museum night
[Breakdown]
(Zither arpeggios intensify)
(Sub-bass counterpoint drops low)
(English horn melody wanders)
(Modular bleeps echo)
[Chorus]
Stellar parallax, a shift in the view
Regret is the distance between me and you
Better to freeze in the deep blue crust
Than turn into museum shelf dust
Shift the angle, see the star move
We lost the rhythm, we lost the groove
Frozen forever in a silent pose
While the Arctic wind still blows
[Post-Chorus]
(Yodel-ay-ee-hoo!)
Aurora light in the distance
(Yodel-ay-ee-hoo!)
Breaking through my resistance
[Verse]
Church choir humming in the vents
Smelling of old mothball scents
I look at the lead dog across the aisle
He wears the same stiff, wire smile
We talk in the frequencies of the dark
About the sled and the frozen spark
We’d rather be bones in the snow
Than put on this nightly show
[Outro]