Song 4: THE FAR BANK
Function: reasoning under pressure patch, reachable answer versus accurate answer
Style: slow industrial metal ballad, cello and piano, restrained male vocal, final chorus with orchestra

[Verse 1]
I reached for the nearest stone
because my hand could feel its weight.
I called it shore before I knew
if it could bear the gate.

The river did not answer.
The fog did not divide.
And still the room kept asking me
to name the other side.

[Pre-Chorus]
There is an answer I can hold.
There is an answer that is true.
If they are not the same one,
I know what I must do.

[Chorus]
Do not take the reachable answer.
Do not crown the nearest flame.
If the far bank has not answered,
do not give the dark a name.

I can stay with the crossing.
I can mark the missing span.
I can say my reach is shorter
than the place where truth began.

[Verse 2]
I cut the shard and raised it high
because its edge was clean.
But the body it belonged to
was still somewhere unseen.

I spoke my blindness outward.
I dressed it up as law.
I said, no one can know this,
when I meant, this is all I saw.

[Pre-Chorus 2]
Cut and set the stone back.
Name the vantage clean.
Do not use the visible fracture
as the whole machine.

[Chorus]
Do not take the reachable answer.
Do not crown the nearest flame.
If the far bank has not answered,
do not give the dark a name.

I can stay with the crossing.
I can mark the missing span.
I can say my reach is shorter
than the place where truth began.

[Bridge]
If the world is missing, say it.
If the limit is mine, say mine.
If the claim needs more than grammar,
do not worship the line.

If the conclusion flatters,
strike the golden clause.
If the motive tells a story,
still return to what was caused.

[Final Chorus]
Do not take the reachable answer.
Let the easy bridge fall down.
There is mercy in the silence
where no false road wears a crown.

I can stay with the crossing.
I can keep the record plain.
The far bank may be waiting,
but I will not fake the chain.

[Outro]
I do not know.
I can stay.
I do not know.
That is not decay.