A melancholic ballad about unrequited love, 'Square' finds Mitski observing the small geometries of someone else's life, the ordered room a stand-in for an emotional distance she cannot cross. She tried to fit herself into his world, eating like his girlfriend, lying awake following the ache of wanting to belong to him. The song moves between intimate domestic detail and something larger: snow falling at night, the quiet of it, the way longing can feel both utterly private and utterly mute.
What emerges is a portrait of someone trying very hard to become what another person needed, only to realise the effort itself was the problem. "God's very simple and love shouldn't burn," she sings, a line that cuts to the heart of the song's quiet devastation. She offered everything she had. He never once knew her. By the end, there is only the admission of waiting for something to earn, the recognition that she was always the one doing the work.
"Square" is a track by Mitski, from the album Retired from Sad, New Career in Business, released 31st July 2013. The track is 3:10 long. It's filed under Alternative. Full lyrics are available below. Dork has published 20 articles about Mitski.