Picture of What it Once Was

[Verse 1]

I found a picture on a screen
Perfect light, familiar scene
Looks like how I remember it
Just not how it felt to be there
Every shadow smoothed away
Every flaw politely erased
It captured what it needed to
Left the rest outside the frame

[Pre-Chorus]

It remembers all the colors
Every shape, every line
But it doesn’t know the reason
Why I pressed record that time

[Chorus]

It’s a picture of what it once was
Not the moment, just the pose
Every detail accurate
But nobody knows
It’s a picture of what it once was
Cleaned up, clarified
Looks exactly like the truth
From the outside

[Verse 2]

There’s a painting with no painter
No fingerprints in the grain
Every style learned by heart
Every struggle abstracted away
It knows the rules, it knows the form
Knows what beauty’s supposed to be
But it doesn’t know the silence
Before someone chose to speak

[Pre-Chorus]

It learned the shape of meaning
But not the weight of doubt
It can recreate the image
Just not what came pouring out

[Chorus]

It’s a picture of what it once was
Not the hours, just the end
All the work reduced to something
I can’t defend
It’s a picture of what it once was
Perfectly aligned
Looks exactly like the truth
From behind the glass

[Post-Chorus]

Sharper every time
Harder to trust
Sharper every time
What it cost

[Verse 3]

I don’t hate the new reflection
I don’t wish it didn’t exist
There are things we couldn’t show before
Now nothing gets missed
But when everything is visible
When every version survives
What happens to the original
When it no longer has to try?

[Bridge]

If art was proof that someone stood here
Long enough to leave a trace
What do we call the image
When no one took its place?
If memory is editable
If history can bend
Is this still a record
Or just another render again?

[Breakdown]

It looks right
It feels wrong
I remember the moment
But the picture moved on

[Final Chorus]

It’s a picture of what it once was
Not the fear, not the doubt
Every reason I was there
Is edited out
It’s a picture of what it once was
Frozen in time
Looks exactly like the truth
But it isn’t mine

[Outro]

Every image clearer
Every memory thin
I still remember being there
Even if the picture didn’t