Lyric

We stayed too long in that café light

Cold cups

Late talks

Closing time

You traced a maze on your paper napkin

Said

“Some paths just curve out of sight”

So I’ll be a shadow on your shoulder

Fading in the back of your mind

Not the hand you wake up holding

Just a name you smile at sometimes

Your hoodie hangs on the old coat rack

Still smells faintly like cinnamon gum

I water your plant

Read your scribbled margins

Hear your laugh in the washing machine hum

Guess we were a page in the middle

Folded near the start and the end

Not the headline ink that lingers

Just the crease I smooth out now and then

Your mother asked if you’re sleeping well

I lied and said you finally rest

Did she see the storm in my teacup shake

When she praised the way we did our best

Maybe we just met too ready

Hearts already wearing their scars

Close enough to keep each other steady

Not enough to trade our distant stars

I see your posts from another town

Fresh paint

New crowd

Same crooked grin

I tap the screen

Then I put it down

Let the moment stay where it’s been

Now you’re just a song in my evening

Soft in the room when the lights turn low

Not the line I keep repeating

Just the echo I’m learning to let go

If we’d stayed

Would we break

Or bend into something kind

I walk home

All alone

Carrying what we left behind