[Verse 1]
Picture a current knocking on a gate,
sodium rushes in, the voltage flips the slate,
one patch turns positive, leans on its neighbor's door,
wakes the sleeping membrane just a micron up the shore,
domino falling, never falling back,
the wave can only travel on a one-way track.
[Chorus]
Racing down the axon, patch by patch by patch,
each little gate a falling domino match,
behind me lies the quiet, the tired and spent terrain,
ahead the open hallway, fresh voltage to be gained,
forward's the only exit, backward's a dead-end street,
that's how the signal keeps its forward beat.
[Verse 2]
Right behind the spike, the sodium gates lock tight,
absolute refractory, not reopening tonight,
try to shock it then, you're banging on sealed steel,
nothing's gonna fire no matter how you feel,
a little further back the door's just stiff, not stuck,
relative refractory, you'll need a stronger truck,
that's why the wave can't ricochet or stall,
a thousand spikes a second is the hard speed wall.
[Chorus]
Racing down the axon, patch by patch by patch,
each little gate a falling domino match,
behind me lies the quiet, the tired and spent terrain,
ahead the open hallway, fresh voltage to be gained,
forward's the only exit, backward's a dead-end street,
that's how the signal keeps its forward beat.
[Verse 3]
Squid picked girth, a cable fat and wide,
current flows with roomier space to glide,
but vertebrates got cleverer, wrapped the wire in fat,
myelin sausage links, insulated like that,
the spike skips sleeping sections, leaps from gap to gap,
nodes of Ranvier flashing like a strobe on a map,
saltatory jumping saves the charge and saves the clock,
hopscotch always beats the crawl around the block.
[Verse 4]
After the storm the pumps come creeping back in,
sodium out, potassium in, resetting the skin,
three ions out for every two that return,
ATP burning so the gradient can churn,
the resting potential settles, patient and still,
waiting for the next command to climb the hill,
chemistry and current locked in endless trade,
the quiet hum of balance that the body's made.
[Bridge]
In a clinic, electrodes kiss your skin,
they clock the pulse from elbow to shin,
nerve conduction velocity, a number on a screen,
slow it down too much, damage in between,
myelin frayed or axon grown thin,
the speedometer tells where the trouble hides within.
[Chorus]
Racing down the axon, patch by patch by patch,
each little gate a falling domino match,
behind me lies the quiet, the tired and spent terrain,
ahead the open hallway, fresh voltage to be gained,
forward's the only exit, backward's a dead-end street,
that's how the signal keeps its forward beat.
[Outro]
Patch to patch, the wire hums its one-way song,
refractory doors keep it marching along,
thick or myelinated, the hallway's built to fly,
racing down the axon, waving its goodbye.