What I Load

[Intro: SID echo]

What do I load?

(What do I load?)

[Verse 1]

CRT hum in a rented room

Blocky sun in an 8-bit sky

SID chip crying through the dark

I press start, I don’t know why

[Pre-Chorus]

Not because the world was small

Maybe because it fit my hands

Not because the past was gold

Maybe because I know the map

[Chorus]

What do I load when I load this world?

A sprite, a byte, a younger me?

What do I hear when the chip returns?

A hum, a ghost, a melody?

Load me in, I just press start

[breath]

[Verse 2]

New worlds scroll with endless light

I scroll, I build, I lose the thread

My inventory full of nothing

Here the edges draw a line

[Pre-Chorus]

Is it shelter? Is it control?

A little room that doesn’t change?

Is it nothing? Is it home?

A map I know but can’t explain

[Chorus]

What do I load when I load this world?

A sprite, a byte, a younger me?

What do I hear when the chip returns?

A hum, a ghost, a melody?

Load me in, I just press start

[breath]

[Bridge: vocoder dialogue]

[SID echo]

Does it run in me?

[I: dry, quiet]

Or do I bang the wall again?

[SID echo]

Does it run in me?

[I]

Or do I run from now?

[SID echo]

Is it comfort?

[I]

Maybe.

[SID echo]

Is it a door?

[I]

I can’t tell.

[SID echo]

Is it nothing?

[I]

We don’t know.

[SID echo]

Or is it more?

[I: soft, trailing]

Or is it more…

[Climax]

Old worlds still run —

But what does that make me?

Old worlds still run —

What am I loading?

What am I loading?

What am I loading?

[Outro: whispered, SID echo]

What do I load?

(What do I load?)