Six O'Clock Half-Life

Lyrics

[Intro]
The math is simple.
Caffeine's half-life is five hours.

[Verse 1]
That 3 PM can of Red Bull?
Half of it is still in the blood at 8.
A quarter at 1 AM.
Which is why the coffee-drinkers
lie awake counting ceiling tiles
and calling it insomnia.
We are rarely just awake.
We are usually blocked from being asleep.

[Verse 2]
At 6 PM the Alkaloid loft thins.
The laptops close in ones and twos.
The adenosine, patient all day,
starts to reclaim its receptors.
The brain's committee begins
to wonder about dinner.
The BeltLine lights up.
The cyclists are heading home.

[Chorus]
Six o'clock half-life.
What is still in the blood is still in the blood.
The molecule does not forgive the hour.
The body keeps its own accounting.

[Bridge]
Some nights I nap at 6 and wake at 7
and feel the caffeine I drank at 2
sparkle to life again —
the coffee-nap trick, the researcher's loophole.
Some nights I don't. Some nights I just sit.

[Outro]
Six o'clock. Half-life. Half a cup of truth.
The day is signing its receipts.
The building is quiet.
The molecule is leaving.