Lyric

Mother, I watched your face

Learn the room by fear

Every cup I set down

Too loud in your ear

I kept my words small

Folded tight in my chest

Love on one side

Anger on the rest

You taught me the door

Before you taught me the name

How to make myself thin

And call that grace

Mother, I learned silence

I learned it from you

Mother, I learned silence

To hold what I knew

I loved you, I hated you

I stayed anyway

Mother, I learned silence

And I still say your name

Your hands on the table

Your back like a wall

I could hear my own breathing

And fear in the hall

Now I speak in the mirror

When nobody's near

Half of me is mercy

Half of me is tear

You taught me the door

Before you taught me the name

How to make myself thin

And call that grace

Mother, I learned silence

I learned it from you

Mother, I learned silence

To hold what I knew

I loved you, I hated you

I stayed anyway

Mother, I learned silence

And I still say your name

If I raise my voice now

Will it crack the air?

Will you hear my sorrow

Or only my stare?

I am not your shadow

I am not your ache

I am what survived us

I am wide awake

Mother, I learned silence

I learned it from you

Mother, I learned silence

But I break it too

I loved you, I hated you

I stayed anyway

Mother, I learned silence

And I still say your name