Lyric

Alarm still ringing in my skull

Coffee stain on a wrinkled sleeve

Bus-air thick with old cologne

Eyes half-shut

Mind up my leave

I gave my whole day away

Signed my name on every minute

Flickering screens

Fluorescent haze

Heart on mute

Just trying to spin it

But I’m still here in this chair

Head like a stone in the rain

Tell me this hour means more

Than a number on someone else’s page

Inbox breathing down my neck

Deadlines stacked like cups by the sink

Keyboard crumbs

Cold takeout box

Blink too long

Forget to think

I carried the world on a list

Checked every square

Still not done

Laughed at a joke I barely heard

Swallowed words

Then bit my tongue

If I’m a line in a chart

Why does my chest feel this tight?

Wish I could clock out my thoughts

Leave them locked in the building tonight

Spiral notebook

Margin prayers

Doodles climbing over the lines

Screen-saver sunsets I don’t see

Jaw locked up from saying “I’m fine”

I traded my color for gray

Just to keep the wheels in place

Sat through another long speech

Nodding in someone else’s space

But under the hum and the talk

A small wild part of me screams

Begging for dirt under nails

For a life that remembers its dreams

Streetlights smear on the ride back home

Shoulders slumped like they weighed the sky

Key in the door

Shoes in the hall

Room so quiet I almost cry

If I lie here on the floor

Let the ceiling learn my name

Can I pull the hours back

Brush the dust off all this shame?

There’s a future on my fridge

Crooked picture

Yellow tape

Somewhere that kid is waiting

For me to help him escape

I’m more than the mask I wear

More than a task

More than “done”

There’s a slow storm in my chest

Rolling in from a kinder sun

I’ll bring a bit of that home

Fold it between bites of bread

Teach my tired

Trembling hands

How to hold what’s living instead

Coat on the chair

Lights going dark

I whisper

“You did what you could”

Sink into blankets like wet sand

Promise myself I’ll be understood

One deep breath

Then one more

Today’s weight sliding off my skin

Tomorrow I’ll take just one hour back

And give it to the person within