Door Inside The Ashes

[Intro: distant crackling, lonely piano] [Verse 1: fragile baritone] We said the things that turn to ashes Burned a bridge we used to cross Watched the smoke erase the distance Till we couldn't see what we'd lost I kept a list of all your failures Like a book I'd memorized Then I saw you trying to change With the sorrow in your eyes [Pre-Chorus: ascending falsetto] I won't pretend the fire was kind But I can leave the flames behind [Chorus: explosive major-key harmonies] There's a door inside the ashes There's a road beyond the pain We can carry what we've learned Without carrying every chain I don't owe you back my trust You don't owe me who you were But I can leave a little room For a better world to occur [Break: soaring guitar over half-time drums] [Verse 2: intimate legato] You said the words without excuses Then you changed what you could change I could see a different person Growing through the wreckage [Bridge: beatless, sustained melody] Forgiveness isn't forgetting And healing isn't always staying Sometimes it's setting down the fire And choosing not to feed it [Final Chorus: stacked choir, cathartic] There's a door inside the ashes And a morning past the smoke We are more than all the moments When our better selves were broken [Outro: piano resolves to major]