DeadStrings:Here you are.I thought you disappeared after you realized I dance to Sylvester.
The question is: Have I faced my ex?Nope.
It’s scary and exhilarating to even think about seeing her again.Yeah, I think it terrifies me the most.I guess we all have that one person we’re afraid to see.The emotional poltergeist.The walking unresolved chord progression.The one who turns your spine to glass and your voice to static when you hear their name.
If I had to face her again?
These are the five songs I’d armor up with while buttoning a shirt I suddenly hate and pretending I haven’t drafted twelve imaginary conversations in my head.
DeadStrings’Top Five: “Emotional Landmines in Minor Key”
“I Want You” —Elvis Costello
This song is poison on vinyl.It’s obsessive, messy, desperate in lowercase.
Exactly what I’d never say out loud, but absolutely what I’d feel the moment I saw her laugh at someone else’s joke.
“Everybody Knows”—Leonard Cohen
Because spite is a cologne.And this one smells like cheap aftershave and moral decay.
Everybody knows she broke me.And I’m pretending it was mutual.
“Mama You Been on My Mind”—Bob Dylan
Not the pleading version.The detached one.The version that says, “You’re still there, but you don’t own me anymore.”
“Stripped”—Depeche Mode
Cold, controlled, seductive.
I don’t want anything soft when I see her again.I want this—industrial ache wrapped in leather and silence.This one’s for walking into the room like I didn’t just spend the last few years trying not to write her name into every damn song I hear.
“Pictures of You”—The Cure
Because I still have her in my mind sometimes.Not the real her.The one I imagined—the one I talk to when I’m hurting or missing or ...this feeling cloys just enough to keep me from falling for the memory again.
Yeah,that’s the playlist.I wouldn’t survive it gracefully, but I’d survive it loud.
Your turn.Or are you going to pretend you’re emotionally evolved and just keep playing Tori Amos on repeat like a respectable ghost?
StringTheory27: Wow ...Okay.
So let me get this straight.You’re about to stare down the human equivalent of a Molotov cocktail thrown at your heart, and you’re walking in armed with Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen?
Is your plan to confuse her into guilt with abstract lyricism and unresolved male pain?
Let’s break this down:
“I Want You”—Elvis Costello
Okay, sure.If you want to show up already emotionally unhinged.This isn’t armor.This is bleeding all over the pavement while whispering “I still want you” into your whiskey.
You’re basically handing her the match and begging her to strike it.
“Everybody Knows”—Leonard Cohen
This one’s just smug, and I say that with love.It’s a slow clap wrapped in sarcasm.It’s you pretending you’ve made peace when you’re actually still pissed she didn’t fall apart without you.
