Page 160 of Raw Notes, Rough Nights

I lived inside a quiet room

Drawn in lines I couldn’t bend

Kept my pulse beneath the surface

Saving breath I’d never spend

Then you walked in without permission

Lit a match inside my chest

Showed me I’d been living half a life

And called it doing my best

[Chorus]

But you…

You heard the note I buried deep

Pulled it from the dark like a secret I couldn’t keep

You saw the man beneath the armour and the choke

You held the parts I thought would break?—

Made them whole

If this is love, let it stay close

Unmasked, unguarded,

Every raw and reckless hope

I’m singing now what fear once stole

You’re the reason I can

You’re my naked note

[Verse 2]

You took the lines I lived between

Traced them soft with steady hands

Made the silence feel like breathing

Made the breaking feel like chance

And I don’t care who sees me now

In paint or sound or shaking light

If what they see is what you found

Then let them look?—