[Intro / Corus] Not now— … Not now— … [Verse 1] Doors fold shut. The heater breathes. Rain runs silver through the streets. Three words warm beneath my thumb. The fourth held hard behind my tongue. Speaker names the next stop twice. Something gives me old advice: “Leave it clean. Don’t let it show.” Same old pressure in my throat. [Pre-Chorus] I mute the phone. The sentence stays. My face in glass moves half a beat ahead. [Chorus] It never says no, it only says not now. Wears my tongue so well, I never called it out. Turns a pulse into a pause, a want into a doubt. It never says no, it only says not now. [Verse 2] Morning breaks across the aisle, finds the seams I called a style. Each dark pane returns my face, half a second out of place. Red stop button. Thumb goes down. “Not this one” without a sound. Bell cuts clean through engine drone. For one beat, it leaves me alone. [Pre-Chorus] The doors pull wide. My jaw goes tight. One boot hits pavement before “not now” arrives. [Chorus] It never says no, it only says not now. Wears my tongue so well, I never called it out. Turns a pulse into a pause, a want into a doubt. It never says no, it only says not now. [Instrumental 16 Bars] [Bridge] It never raised its voice at all, never had to lock the door. Moved each want another day till I couldn’t name one anymore. Kept my hands folded and still while it answered in my name. Now I hear it in the glass, making “later” sound like fate. [Final Chorus] It never says no, it only says not now. Wears my tongue so well, I hear it in my mouth. Turns a pulse into a pause, a want into a doubt. The doors fold shut behind me. My mouth keeps moving in the glass. [Outro] Half a block away, through rain and glass, it still sounds like me. It still knows where I am.
