The Weight of Waiting

How do you explain what is on your heart when you don’t understand it yourself? I’ve spent much of my life trying to put my emotions into words. Sometimes it’s through paintings, sometimes through drawings, and often through my writing. But I’ve also found comfort in music, poetry, and books—those unspoken words that feel as though they were written specifically for me, capturing emotions I can't fully articulate. There’s something deeply reassuring about encountering these expressions from someone else—someone who doesn’t even know I exist, yet who somehow understands what I’ve been trying to say. It’s in these moments I realize I’m not alone. I can give myself permission to feel, to exist in my emotions, as long as I’m experiencing them through the lens of someone else’s art.

It’s an oddly beautiful thing to discover a piece of music or literature that seems to speak directly to your soul. This song is a masterclass in capturing the quiet desperation of longing for change and the uncertainty that comes with trying to reconcile our desires with the reality we live in. The lyrics are raw, vulnerable, and deeply emotional—like a conversation you’ve had with yourself in your most private moments.

So, let’s break down "The Prophecy," one lyric at a time, and see how these words can encapsulate feelings we all struggle to express, but often feel too deeply to ignore.

Hand on the throttle

Thought I caught lightning in a bottle

Oh, but it's gone again

This line evokes a sense of the narrator attempting to gain control of her life and moving forward towards her goal. The hand on the throttle suggests the speaker is trying to drive her own fate or life, making decisions about where she’s headed. There's a sense of determination or at least an attempt at control, though it's likely symbolic. Catching lightning in a bottle" is a metaphor for achieving something rare and extraordinary, almost impossible. It evokes a fleeting, magical moment of success and love. This line suggests that the narrator thought she had something special—to feel loved and be loved—but it didn’t last.

And it was written

I got cursed like Eve got bitten

Oh, was it punishment?

This implies a sense of fate or destiny, as if the outcome was inevitable. "It was written" often suggests that events were preordained, pointing to the narrator’s belief in a predestined future. She has became resigned, as if accepting that this outcome was somehow always meant to happen. Eve is eluding to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. Eve, who was tempted by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, was cursed as a result. The narrator is comparing her own situation to Eve’s, suggesting that she, too, is facing some sort of curse or consequence for a past decision of her own or was born into punishment of those before her. She is paying the debt as an unknown punishment.

Pad around when I get home

I guess a lesser woman would've lost hope

A greater woman wouldn't beg

"Pad around" suggests walking aimlessly or restlessly, perhaps in a state of confusion or weariness. The narrator may be struggling to find peace or purpose. The tone here is a little lost or desolate, as though she's not sure where to go or how to make sense of her feelings. It may also suggest that she is walking on eggshells, being careful to not disturb the peace even if it means losing her own. The narrator is comparing herself to an idealized "lesser" version of herself—someone who would give up easily. She implies that she hasn't lost hope, despite her struggles. She has a mixture of pride and self-doubt. She's acknowledging her persistence, but also questioning if that persistence is a weakness or a strength. She tries to find a comparison between herself and an idealized "greater woman"—someone who is stoic and doesn’t plead for things. The narrator feels that her vulnerability and begging are weaknesses and she is nothing more than desperate.

But I looked to the sky and said

Please I've been on my knees

Change the prophecy

Don't want money

Just someone who wants my company

Let it once be me

Who do I have to speak to

About if they can redo the prophecy?

The sky is often associated with higher powers, fate, or divine intervention. Looking to the sky suggests a plea for help, guidance, or change from something greater than herself. A tone of longing or hope, as if the narrator is seeking something beyond her control. The pain and heartache that she feels has to have a purpose, a deeper meaning in her life. he simplicity and repetition of "please" shows a sense of desperation. It’s a vulnerable plea, requesting change or intervention. She is begging for help, to be seen, and urgently, desperatly, filled with the desire to rewrite her future. She desires something intangible—love, companionship, or peace.Sincere and focused, as the narrator prioritizes emotional needs over material ones, just a genuine connection with someone who values her. The narrator is asking for herself to be the one who is chosen, the one who is desired or loved. She is pleading for her own chance at happiness or fulfillment. he narrator feels that fate or destiny has already written her life, but she wants a chance to alter it. She asks rhetorically who she needs to speak to in order to have her fate rewritten, highlighting her lack of control and if she could find the hidden meaning/request she would have the answer to her question.

Cards on the table

Mine play out like fools in a fable, oh

It was sinking in (sinking in, oh)

The "cards on the table" evokes a sense of honesty, transparency, or a game being played. It's a moment of laying everything bare. She is putting herself out there, being open and honest about her feelings or situation. This line suggests that the narrator’s life or actions seem foolish, like the characters in a fable who often end up learning a moral lesson. It implies a feeling of being caught in a predictable or foolish cycle. A cycle that can be seen by anyone walking by, yet she struggles to leave.

Slow is the quicksand

Poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand

Oh, still I dream of him

Quicksand is a metaphor for something that traps and pulls you down, slowly and inescapably. The use of "slow" emphasizes the gradual, suffocating nature of her circumstances. The repetition of “sinking in” emphasizes the feeling of something heavy or inevitable settling within the narrator. It conveys the sense that she is becoming increasingly aware of the depth of her situation or feelings. Yet, just like with quick sand, he slowly pulls apart her worth, and her identity. She is unable to see it, until she has fully sucken in. The "wound of the pricked hand" likely refers to the pain of a past decision or action that continues to affect the narrator. Despite all the suffering and struggles, the narrator continues to dream of someone—likely a lover or soulmate. This line suggests a longing for someone who may not be present or may not return.

Please I've been on my knees

Change the prophecy

Don't want money

Just someone who wants my company

Let it once be me

Who do I have to speak to

About if they can redo the prophecy?

The next lines repeat the earlier themes of pleading for the prophecy to change, the desire for companionship, and the hope for something better. This repetition emphasizes the narrator’s desperation and longing for a shift in her fate and being trapped in the never ending cycle.

And I sound like an infant

Feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen

A greater woman stays cool

But I howl like a wolf at the moon

Being compared to an infant conveys a sense of vulnerability and need. The narrator feels small and helpless, like a child who cannot understand or control her own emotions yet knowing she has to voice this need in order to survive. Being an ink pen conveys a sense of running out of time or resources. Just as the last drops of ink are fading and ineffective, the narrator feels she’s running out of emotional energy or hope. It also represnets her giving away every drop of herself to make those around her happy. The deathly whispers asking what will become of her once she has given up everything and is no longer useful. Will she be loved? Will she be forgotten? This contrasts the idealized "greater woman" with the narrator's own emotional outburst. While the "greater woman" remains composed, the narrator expresses her pain loudly and intensely, like a wolf howling at the moon—a primal, uncontrollable cry. Begging for love and adorment that she knows will forever be out of reach. She longs to be the kind of woman who is strong, sets boundaries, and knows her worth, but instead, she finds herself howling at the moon, begging for scraps—because those who are starved will settle for even the tiniest morsel of love.

And I look unstable

Gathered with a coven round a sorceress' table

She is self-aware here, acknowledging her own fragility. She feels emotionally off-kilter, perhaps both to herself and to others. This line suggests an awareness of her vulnerability and how others may perceive her. The shame and embarrassment of the answer being simple yet howling and begging for it anyway. She's surrounded by people who possess power or knowledge she lacks, and if only she could see through their eyes would this cycle be easier to break, yet she gets lost in the haze.

A greater woman has faith

But even statues crumble if they're made to wait

I'm so afraid I sealed my fate

No sign of soulmates

This is a powerful metaphor for the toll that time and patience can take. Statues, which are often symbols of permanence and strength, eventually crumble under the weight of time. This suggests that even the strongest or most resilient things—people, relationships, or beliefs—can break down if they are left in a state of waiting or stasis for too long. The result of letting herself waste away to appease others. The narrator expresses a deep fear of having made choices that have irrevocably shaped her future, and not being strong enough in the past. There’s a sense of regret and a fear that she may not be able to change her destiny now. The absence of a soulmate signifies loneliness or the feeling that love is either absent or unreachable and she will never experience.

I'm just a paperweight in shades of greige

Spending my last coin so someone will tell me it'll be okay

A paperweight is something that holds things in place but doesn’t have much movement or purpose beyond that. "Shades of greige" (a combination of gray and beige) suggests dullness, passivity, or a lack of vibrancy. The narrator feels stuck, unimportant, and emotionally flat—someone who holds things together without bringing color or life. She is depressed and defeated. The narrator’s sense of self-worth is minimal here, and this line emphasizes feelings of stagnation and emotional inertia. The love she so stronly craves is something that she will only experience by providing coin. Paying someone to be a friend, to comfort her and hear the words she so despertly wants to hear, "it'll be okay". The shame that she bears knowing the day she stops paying, all the of support and empathy she has been gifted is gone.

Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh

The repetition here is haunting, almost like a chant or a cry. It conveys the emotional weight of her plea, showing her desperation, longing, and deep internal unrest, howling like a wolf at the moon.

Please I've been on my knees

Change the prophecy

Don't want money

Just someone who wants my company

Let it once be me

Who do I have to speak to

About if they can redo the prophecy?

Who do I have to speak to

To change the prophecy?

Then after all the fighting to see through the haze, she finds herself once again questioning...hoping... daring to dream that one day she could change the prophecy.

Hand on the throttle

Thought I caught lightning in a bottle, oh

But it's gone again

Pad around when I get home

I guess a lesser woman would've lost hope

A greater woman wouldn't beg

Like a sick joke, once she finds the strength to break the cycle he steps in, shows her the illusion of what could be and feeds her starving soul a few crumbs. Simutanously, she feels she has caught the smallest glips of love...the lighting in a bottle then is swallowed with shame, because a greater version of herself would never have to beg. So she walks into the cycle while wiping her eyes and looking up at the sky, screaming...

"Please"