[Verse 1]
Tuesday coat, third button down,
riding the six train crosstown,
thread's hanging off the hem like a whisper,
loose and lazy, daring your finger.
You tell yourself, just tuck it in,
but your nails are already itching to begin,
one small tug and the seam goes slack,
now there's a gap where the hem was intact.
You keep going, can't stop, can't quit,
watching the stitch come undone bit by bit,
that's the whole mood in a six-inch string,
pull one thread, you unravel everything.
[Chorus]
Ravel, unravel, they mean the same old thing,
one small pull undoes everything.
I just wanted to fix one little string,
now look at the mess that a thread can bring.
[Verse 2]
My grandmother used to say, pinch it first,
don't pull, pinch — that reverses the curse,
find the knot right where it tore,
stop the thread before it takes more.
Called up my friend just to vent the thing,
she said, girl, that's not unraveling, that's just a string,
sit yourself down with a needle and thread,
knot it off instead of chasing the dread.
The selvage edge, the one that holds its line,
was woven tight so it never unwinds —
the cut part frays, the built part stays,
know which one you're pulling these days.
Not every loose end needs the whole shirt gone,
sometimes you knot it quiet and carry on.
[Verse 3]
Down at the tailor's, the old man grins,
says every garment's got a hundred sins,
"you think it's broken, but it's just worn thin,
the fabric remembers where the trouble's been."
He shows me a coat he's mended twice,
the stitches like scars, but it still feels right,
says healing ain't hiding, it's holding on tight,
to the pieces that frayed in the dead of night.
I think about all the threads I've chased,
every hem I've unraveled just to taste,
the fear of letting something stay broke,
instead of trusting the mend, trusting the cloak.
Maybe the lesson ain't in the tear,
it's in the needle, it's in the care,
it's in the choosing to stitch instead of strip,
to hold the hem instead of losing your grip.
[Bridge]
Some nights I still find a thread hanging loose,
fingers still itch, still make the excuse,
the hem don't heal just 'cause I learned its name,
tomorrow that seam might ask the same.
I'm no better at leaving it be,
just better at telling the thread from me.
[Chorus]
Ravel, unravel, they mean the same old thing,
one small pull undoes everything.
I just wanted to fix one little string,
now look at the mess that a thread can bring.
[Chorus]
Ravel, unravel, they mean the same old thing,
one small pull undoes everything.
I just wanted to fix one little string,
now look at the mess that a thread can bring.