[Intro] [solo cello, distant choir, chair creak, low piano] [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Your coat still hangs where winter left it. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] One sleeve turned toward the door. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Your blue mug, chipped at the handle, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] still waits beside the drawer. [Verse 1] [heavy guitars enter under strings] [MALE LEAD VOCAL] The house learned silence by your name, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] the windows kept your breath in rain. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I found your note behind the clock, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] creased where your shaking hands had stopped. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] The birthday card you signed too soon [MALE LEAD VOCAL] still leans beside your place in the room. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] “Don’t forget milk. Drive safe. Come back.” [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Your voice still lives in my voicemail stack. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] Do not make a shrine of me. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] Do not sleep beneath the stone. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] If you loved the life I carried, [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] carry yours when I am gone. [Pre-Chorus] [call and response] [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I hear you in the floorboards. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] I am not there. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I see you in the mirror. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] That’s grief, not me. [DUET VOCAL] Love is not the grave we keep. [DUET VOCAL] Love is what we carry when we leave. [Chorus] [MALE LEAD VOCAL dominant, FEMALE LEAD VOCAL answers, choir behind] [MALE LEAD VOCAL] The empty chair sings louder than thunder, [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] louder than thunder, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] calling my heart from the dark underneath. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] come back to living. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I buried your body, not what you gave me, [DUET VOCAL] not every ending deserves my defeat. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Morning hits dust [MALE LEAD VOCAL] where your shoes should be waiting. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] I’m in the “drive safe” you say when they leave. [DUET VOCAL] One cup on the table, [DUET VOCAL] but the bells still breathe. [DUET VOCAL] If heaven stays silent, I’ll answer by living. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] The empty chair sings. [Verse 2] [galloping guitars, male vocal stronger] [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I screamed your name at marble walls, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] heard only crows and chapel bells. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] The priest said time would close the wound, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] but time just learned your perfume. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Your sister cried into my sleeve, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] your mother would not look at me. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I hated God, then hated air, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] then hated that my lungs still dared. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] I was more than my leaving. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] I was laughter, teeth, and fire. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] I had years before that last hour. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] Don’t let that hour take all of yours. [Bridge] [piano, cello, choir hum only] [MALE LEAD VOCAL] There’s a dress I cannot move. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] There’s a room I keep locked shut. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] There’s a crossword on the table, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] seven boxes waiting under “maybe.” [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] Open it. [Breakdown] [crushing guitars, choir stabs, double kick] [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Open the room. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Open the wound. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Open the curtains. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Let morning come through. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I won’t call this healing. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] Not yet. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I won’t call this peace. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] Not yet. [DUET VOCAL] But I will not become [DUET VOCAL] the last thing grief eats. [Final Chorus] [full male/female duet, choir wide] [MALE LEAD VOCAL] The empty chair sings louder than thunder, [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] louder than thunder, [MALE LEAD VOCAL] calling my heart from the dark underneath. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] come back to living. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I buried your body, not what you gave me, [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] then don’t bury yourself here with me. [MALE LEAD VOCAL] Morning hits dust [MALE LEAD VOCAL] where your shoes should be waiting. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] Say “drive safe” when somebody leaves. [DUET VOCAL] One cup on the table, [DUET VOCAL] but I opened the room. [DUET VOCAL] If heaven stays silent, I’ll answer by living. [DUET VOCAL] The empty chair sings. [Outro] [choir fades, cello alone, chair creak] [MALE LEAD VOCAL] I turned the chair toward sunrise. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] I heard you. [DUET VOCAL] And let it sing. [FEMALE LEAD VOCAL] The empty chair sings.
