Still Here

[Intro – sparse, reflective, morning light] [Verse 1 – close, restrained, bruised] There’s a crack running up the hallway paint Dent where the old chair hit the wall Morning comes through the same bent blinds Like nothing ever happened here at all I still wake before the kettle Still listen hard before I move But the floor is cold beneath my feet And I’m still here to feel it too [Pre-Chorus] Not clean Not cured Not anything they’d call transformed Just breathing Just standing Just not as gone as I was before [Chorus] Still here Even after all of that Still here Breathing through the aftermath Still here Not new, not whole, not light But the day came in this morning And I’m still here inside it [Verse 2] You ask if I slept at all I say enough and pour the coffee black You touch my shoulder in the kitchen light Still half-expecting me to crack And maybe some part of me does In little ways, most every day But the whole thing doesn’t come apart now Not every time the shadows shift that way [Pre-Chorus] I’ve lost I’ve bent I’ve worn silence like a second skin But the room stays And I stay And that has got to count for something [Chorus] Still here Even after all of that Still here Breathing through the aftermath Still here Not new, not whole, not light But the day came in this morning And I’m still here inside it [Bridge] I thought survival would look cleaner More like grace and less like this Less like standing in a doorway With my whole life in my fists But maybe it’s this ordinary Maybe it’s this plain and strange A body learning not to vanish When the air around it finally changes [Final Chorus] Still here Even after all of that Still here Breathing through the aftermath Still here Not fixed, not free, not fine But the light came in this morning And I’m still here when it does [Outro] Not gone Not gone The house still knows my name And I’m still here Still here Still here