I built you from shadows in corners of light You walk through my walls every time I close my eyes You’re not real, but you feel like skin Like a secret I keep tucked deep within Your name is silence I speak in sleep A stranger I know but have never seen I wait by the window that never was Hoping you’ll pass through just because I swear I see you in the steam on the glass Every second, like the first, never seems to pass It’s always the first time Every time I dream of you Like you’ve just walked in In a world I never knew You don’t have to speak I already know your name In this house of ghosts You’re the only flame Always the first time And always just out of frame I write you in mirrors and vanish the page You live in the hush of the empty stage Your touch is a rumor I almost recall Like perfume drifting through a vacant hall You’re the lock and the missing key The echo that undoes me sweetly I keep looking for the door to swing wide But it’s only me, and the space beside You bloom where no one’s ever stood You burn like every might-have-been should Still I wait with all the lights on For the girl who comes and is already gone It’s always the first time Every time I dream of you Like you’ve just appeared And the world turns new You don’t have to stay Just haunt me like a hymn In this house of hours Where time grows dim Always the first time And never quite again
