[Intro][Acoustic guitar, melancholic]
Dust motes dancing in the afternoon sun
Same old patterns on the wallpaper, undone
Forty years breathing this familiar air
Now it’s just me, and the silence I bear

[Verse 1][Folk, Storytelling]
The phone sits there, a beige, plastic ghost
Ringless and silent, what was it for, the most?
She’d say, “Answer it, dear, you never know who!”
Now the dial tone’s a scream, a truth I can’t get through

[Pre-Chorus][Building tension, soft piano]
Remembering her voice, a gentle, guiding hum
Now the cord feels heavy, my fingers feeling numb
Each twist and loop a moment we can’t reclaim
Just a tangle of wires, whispering her name

[Chorus][Folk-rock, Heartbreak with a hint of dark humour]
So I unplug the landline, a ritual so strange
Wrapping up the cord, a world rearranged
It’s just plastic and copper, but it feels like my heart
Tangled and cut, right from the very start
Yeah, just plastic and copper, a very mundane end
To a life that was everything, my mother, my friend

[Verse 2][Observational, specific details]
The little coiled wire, a familiar embrace
Like the way she’d straighten my collar in this place
There’s a smudge on the receiver, from her favorite red lipstick
And a tiny scratch where the cat used to slip

[Pre-Chorus][More intensity, strings swell slightly]
Trying to make it neat, like she always would do
Folding it just so, for me and for you
But the emptiness is vast, the space where she should be
And this mundane task is drowning me

[Chorus][Folk-rock, More powerful, raw emotion]
So I unplug the landline, a ritual so strange
Wrapping up the cord, a world rearranged
It’s just plastic and copper, but it feels like my heart
Tangled and cut, right from the very start
Yeah, just plastic and copper, a very mundane end
To a life that was everything, my mother, my friend

[Bridge][Slightly faster tempo, a moment of defiance/absurdity]
Maybe I’ll use it as a leash for the dog?
Or tie it to the mailbox, like a peculiar log?
This house is full of echoes, and this cord's a new one
A reminder of everything, and what’s to be done

[Guitar Solo][Melancholy but with a touch of resilience]

[Chorus][Folk-rock, Fullest emotion, fading slightly]
So I unplug the landline, a ritual so strange
Wrapping up the cord, a world rearranged
It’s just plastic and copper, but it feels like my heart
Tangled and cut, right from the very start
Yeah, just plastic and copper, a very mundane end
To a life that was everything, my mother, my friend

[Outro][Acoustic guitar fading, spoken word]
And it’s… all wound up now.
Just… sitting here.
Wondering if I should… plug it back in.
Just to hear… something.
[Silence]