[Verse 1] The board is cold as a church key. Your king can't sleep, can't pray. I count the squares like bruises, each one blocks the easy way. You smile like you know the ending, like the night has picked my bone. I touch one hand to the railing, and the railing feels like stone. Your rook sits lean and patient, my knight is pinned in place. I hear my own breath narrowing, I watch the sweat on my face. One step left is a jail cell. One step right is a knife. I made a house of decisions, now every room takes life. [Pre-Chorus] Say it plain. No mercy line. Every answer costs me mine. If I move, I lose a little. If I wait, I lose the rest. The clock keeps chewing through my fingers, and my pulse won't take a test. [Chorus] Zugzwang, baby, zugzwang every move is wrong Zugzwang, baby, zugzwang I been trapped too long One more step, I’m gone one more step, I’m gone Zugzwang, baby, zugzwang every move is wrong [Verse 2] I tried to build a clean exit out of habits, out of heat. But the board remembers everything, every fear, every defeat. I moved too fast for caution, I moved too slow for truth. Now the king is out of breath again, and I can’t call back my youth. Your queen don’t blink at danger, she just leans into the flame. I keep reaching for a safer world, and it keeps changing name. I had a hand full of maybe, I had a pocket full of doubt. Now the only roads in front of me are ways to bleed it out. And the crowd, they think it’s simple, like I chose this rotten game. But they never felt the pressure when the walls began to name. [Pre-Chorus] Say it plain. No mercy line. Every answer costs me mine. If I move, I lose a little. If I wait, I lose the rest. The clock keeps chewing through my fingers, and my pulse won't take a test. [Chorus] Zugzwang, baby, zugzwang every move is wrong Zugzwang, baby, zugzwang I been trapped too long One more step, I’m gone one more step, I’m gone Zugzwang, baby, zugzwang every move is wrong [Bridge] Maybe freedom was the lie I told myself to stay alive. Maybe the first bad move I made was learning how to compromise. Now I can see the whole board glowing like a wound beneath the skin. No clever hand, no last-minute prayer can put the honest answer in. So I sit with all my losses, let them line up, let them ring. Sometimes the cruelest kind of silence is the one that lets you think. [Final Chorus] Zugzwang, baby, zugzwang every move is wrong Zugzwang, baby, zugzwang I been trapped too long Take the hit, I’m gone take the hit, I’m gone Zugzwang, baby, zugzwang every move is wrong [Outro] If I stay, I vanish. If I go, I break. Tell me which kind of ending this old heart ought to take. Zugzwang... zugzwang... I hear it in the dark. Every move a losing move, right here at the start.
