‘Fortnight’ by Taylor Swift & Post Malone - Lyrics & Meaning

One of the most hotly anticipated tracks from Taylor Swift's 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department, ‘Fortnight’ features a blockbuster guest appearance from Post Malone.

The sultry, hazy offering serves as the opening track of the album, and foreshadows a number of core themes and lyrical references that colour the remainder of the project.

With many fans suspecting The Tortured Poets Department was inspired by Taylor's break-ups with Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy, the title ‘Fortnight’ - a British phrase meaning two weeks (literally, ‘fourteen nights’) is seemingly a nod to her English exes.

Shortly before making ‘Fortnight’ available to stream on April 19th, Taylor Swift confirmed it would be the first single from The Tortured Poets Department, with the introspective track receiving an official music video with Taylor and Posty later that day.

As well as acting as a precursor to later narratives on the album, ‘Fortnight’ sets the tone for The Tortured Poets Department sonically, with its misty, drawn-in ambience and driving, synth-driven composition feeling reminiscent of 2022's Midnights.

Post Malone's ethereal voice is interspersed with Taylor's throughout the song, with the ‘Circles’ hitmaker continuing in the reverb-laden, alt-folk vein of his 2023 album, AUSTIN.

As the song reaches its crescendo, Taylor's signature vocals become increasingly layered, before Post Malone takes the lead for the first time during the angsty, sinuous outro.

“I was supposed to be sent away
But they forgot to come and get me
I was a functioning alcoholic
'Til nobody noticed my new aesthetic
All of this to say, I hope you're okay
But you're the reason
And no one here's to blame
But what about your quiet treason?”

With listeners keenly scouring the lyrics to The Tortured Poets Department to find cryptic mentions of or veiled digs aimed at Joe Alwyn or Matty Healy, it's difficult not to interpret ‘Fortnight’ as a partly-real, partly-fictional exploration of these break-ups.

The first line, “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me”, appears to be an extension of the Midnights stand-out, ‘Hits Different’, which contains the lyric, “Is it okay? / Is it you? / Or have they come to take me away?”

The underlying implication throughout ‘Fortnight’ is that the protagonist is volatile, violent and seeking revenge, and this opening line suggests she was deemed too dangerous to be allowed to run free - but attempts to lock her away were unsuccessful.

As for the ‘functioning alcoholic’ line, this could simply be accentuating the unpredictability of the lead character, while also being a reference to Taylor's past drinking habits. In her 2023 TIME interview, the megastar shared that she'd eschewed alcohol during the preparation and execution of her wildly popular Eras tour.

The ‘quiet treason’ lyric is enigmatic, but some fans have interpreted this as a reference to the - so far unsubstantiated - cheating rumours surrounding Joe Alwyn and Emma Laird.

Regardless of whether these allegations were true, Alwyn stirred up a social media storm when he appeared in Emma Laird's Instagram carousel, which was - interestingly - shared roughly a ‘Fortnight’ after Taylor and Alwyn's split was announced.

“And for a fortnight there we were forever running
'Til you sometimes ask about the weather
Now you're in my backyard turned into good neighbors
Your wife waters flowers, I wanna kill her”

An alternative reading of the titular lyric here is that Taylor Swift is instead be referring to the short-lived romance between her and Matty Healy, as opposed to the time between her break-up with Joe Alwyn and the Emma Laird social media post.

The blurred lines between reality and fiction are exacerbated in this chorus, as Taylor Swift describes her former lover as now having a wife. The song's protagonist goes on to express her desire to ‘kill’ the wife as she carries out innocent, mundane household chores, such as watering the flowers in the backyard.

“All my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February
I took the miracle move on drug, the effects were temporary
And I love you, it's ruining my life
I love you, it's ruining my life
I touched you for only a fortnight
I touched you, but I touched you”

The fact that Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn reportedly split in February 2023 was not lost on fans when they heard the ‘February’ lyric in this verse, with Taylor seemingly emphasising the bleakness of her outlook following the break-up by portraying her mornings as all feeling like ’Mondays’. The feeling of being ‘stuck in an endless February’ suggests she's frozen in place at the point in time where they called it quits.

The evocative lyric, “I love you, it's ruining my life”, appears on the artwork for The Manuscript version of Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department vinyl. The conflicted nature of this line epitomises the album's titular theme of feeling ‘tortured’.

We flit again between potential references to Alwyn and Healy, with the line “I touched you for only a fortnight” seemingly linking to the latter, due to the briefness of their relationship.

“And for a fortnight there we were together running
'Til you sometimes come and tug my sweater
Now you're at the mailbox turned into good neighbors
My husband is cheating, I wanna kill him”

This variation of the earlier chorus finds Taylor Swift switching out the line about discussing the weather, in favour of an image of her ex coming to tug on her sweater. This is something children often do to get the attention of their parents or adults, and this lyric therefore feels like a subtle foreshadowing of ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys’, perhaps depicting her old flames as emotionally immature.

This juxtaposes the portrayal of her ex and his wife becoming ‘good neighbors’, with the protagonist possibly wondering why he's decided to grow up now he's with his new partner.

The lead character goes on to turn her bloodthirsty gaze away from the wife and towards her own husband, before dropping another pointed ‘cheating’ reference.

“Thought of calling ya, but you won't pick up
Another fortnight lost in America
Move to Florida, buy the car you want (Car you want)
But it won't start up 'til you touch, touch, touch me”

Post Malone drives much of these closing remarks, with the verse opening with the stark contrast between the titular British phrase ‘Fortnight’ and ‘America’. This could highlight the incompatibility between the US singer-songwriter and her British exes.

The command to ‘Move to Florida’ is a nod to a later track on The Tortured Poets Department, ’Florida!!!’ The narrative seamlessly aligns, with the ‘Fortnight’ protagonist underlining her murderous inclinations, before ‘Florida!!!’ concretises this (“Your cheating husband disappeared / Well, no one asks any questions here”). Through the metaphor of a shiny new car that won't start, Taylor emphasises to her ex that a new lover won't bring him the same joy she could.

On the eve of its release, Taylor Swift took to social media to underline her longstanding appreciation for Post Malone's unique artistic talents, “I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever. I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on ‘Fortnight’”.

(Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift & Post Malone

Post Malone)

“I was supposed to be sent away
But they forgot to come and get me
I was a functioning alcoholic
'Til nobody noticed my new aesthetic
All of this to say, I hope you're okay
But you're the reason
And no one here's to blame
But what about your quiet treason?

And for a fortnight there we were forever running
'Til you sometimes ask about the weather
Now you're in my backyard turned into good neighbors
Your wife waters flowers, I wanna kill her

All my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February
I took the miracle move on drug, the effects were temporary
And I love you, it's ruining my life
I love you, it's ruining my life
I touched you for only a fortnight
I touched you, but I touched you

And for a fortnight there we were forever running
'Til you sometimes ask about the weather
Now you're in my backyard, turned into good neighbors
Your wife waters flowers, I wanna kill her
And for a fortnight there we were together running
'Til you sometimes come and tug my sweater
Now you're at the mailbox turned into good neighbors
My husband is cheating, I wanna kill him

I love you, it's ruining my life
I love you, it's ruining my life
I touched you for only a fortnight
I touched you, I touched you
I love you, it's ruining my life
I love you, it's ruining my life
I touched you for only a fortnight
I touched you, I touched you

Thought of calling ya, but you won't pick up
Another fortnight lost in America
Move to Florida, buy the car you want (Car you want)
But it won't start up 'til you touch, touch, touch me
Thought of calling ya, but you won't pick up
Another fortnight lost in America
Move to Florida, buy the car you want
But it won't start up 'til I touch, touch, touch you”

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