[Intro] You left the hallway light on Long after I came home. Some part of you was waiting For someone I’d outgrown. [Verse 1] I learned the weather from the pressure in your jaw, Counted every footstep through the bedroom wall. A child becomes an instrument, calibrated for the threat— I could hear the storm assembling in the way you drew a breath. Now every kindness carries something I should doubt; I check the exits when a friend invites me out. The house is gone. The body keeps the architecture. I sleep beneath a ceiling held together by conjecture. [Pre-Chorus] You reach for me; I brace against the touch. How can an empty room still hold so much? [Chorus] Stay until the shaking ends, Till these hands are mine again. I’ve been holding up the roof Of a house I lost in youth. When the water fills my chest, Will you help me find a breath? There’s a life I haven’t lived— There is more to me than this. [Verse 2] Last week I heard your anger coming out of my mouth. Watched the person that I love become a stranger backing out. I stopped before the sentence found a place beneath their skin; For once, the old inheritance had nowhere to begin. No revelation. Just the kitchen after ten. My palms against the counter. Counting back from ten again. I said, “You didn’t cause this.” Let the silence have its weight. Left the doorway open. Let them choose to stay. [Pre-Chorus] I thought survival meant I’d never bend. I’m learning how to let somebody in. [Chorus] Stay until the shaking ends, Till these hands are mine again. I’ve been holding up the roof Of a house I lost in youth. When the water fills my chest, Will you help me find a breath? There’s a life I haven’t lived— There is more to me than this. [Breakdown] My father’s fist. My mother’s flinch. An entire childhood In a closing inch. I feel it rising. I let it pass. The blood keeps moving. The pattern ends. You will not learn To fear my hands. [Bridge] We sat until the refrigerator hummed, Until the ordinary world came flooding back. You asked if I could leave the light on. I said yes. You didn’t have to ask!!! [Final Chorus] Stay until the shaking ends, Till these hands are mine again. Let the old roof fall away; We deserve a place to stay. When the water fills my chest, I can ask you for a breath. There’s a life I haven’t lived— I am reaching out for it. [Outro] I left the hallway light on. You fell asleep beside me. For once, the sound of breathing Was only somebody breathing.
