Your boots still rest by the back step rail Got red dirt dried in the cracked-up nails And the radio hums some worn-out tune Like it don’t know it’s singin’ to an empty room ⸻ Chorus Once you’ve seen the worst, the dark don’t scare you much Thunder loses nerve, and the night don’t cut as rough When you’ve stood in the ashes with your hands down at your sides And watched your last good dream roll away in taillights You learn what hurts, and what just ain’t worth Losin’ one more minute over Once you’ve seen the worst ⸻ Verse 2 I’ve slept through storms on a borrowed couch With a jacket for a blanket and a past I couldn’t drown out Watched neon flicker on a midnight street While the truth kept time in a slow heartbeat I’ve heard my name in a voice gone cold Felt the weight of words you can’t unsay or hold And every mile on that two-lane black Was just me and the things I can’t take back ⸻ Chorus Once you’ve seen the worst, the dark don’t scare you much Thunder loses nerve, and the night don’t cut as rough When you’ve stood in the ashes with your hands down at your sides And watched your last good dream roll away in taillights You learn what hurts, and what just ain’t worth Losin’ one more minute over Once you’ve seen the worst ⸻ Bridge Now the wind don’t whisper like it used to do Ain’t no ghosts left here that I answer to And the silence don’t echo, it just stays still Like a lake at dawn on the other side of a hill There’s a kind of mercy in losin’ it all You stop waitin’ on a voice that ain’t gonna call And the man in the mirror finally looks back clean Like he’s done fightin’ what he can’t redeem ⸻ Final Chorus Once you’ve seen the worst, the dark don’t scare you much Thunder loses nerve, and the night don’t cut as rough When you’ve stood in the ashes with your hands down at your sides And watched your last good dream roll away in taillights You learn what hurts, and what just ain’t worth Losin’ one more minute over Once you’ve seen the worst
