[Intro – sparse piano, low strings] LINCOLN (soft, dazed): The votes are in… and the tally’s clear. Guess that’s the way it ends this year. A man can walk the straightest road— and still wind up alone… back home. [Verse 1 – Lincoln] LINCOLN: I tried to fight with reason, I tried to stand with grace… But politics is fire and I never found my place. They wanted louder voices, They wanted men who roar— But I’m a quiet kind of thunder and they never heard me more. [Mary enters – quiet, tense] MARY (soft but cutting): Abe… you gave them everything— your heart, your time, your spine. But this world doesn’t honor saints, it only honors signs. (steps closer, gentler) And I married you because I knew you were meant for something vast… But now you’re standing in the ruins of a dream that couldn’t last. [Refrain – both, overlapping pain] LINCOLN: Maybe I was never meant to change the world at all… MARY (over him): Maybe you’re just scared to rise and scared too much to fall… BOTH: Maybe this is how a destiny can vanish in the dust— a man can fall from everything he thought to build… and trust. [Verse 2 – Lincoln alone, breaking] LINCOLN: I thought I heard a calling— I thought I felt the door… But maybe I mistook the wind for something greater than before. Maybe the road is shorter, maybe the story’s small— just a prairie-town attorney with no fire left at all. [Bridge – Mary, emotional explosion] MARY (frustrated, heartbroken): Don’t you dare shrink down, Abraham— don’t you dare fold up your height! You were born to break the darkness, you were shaped to walk in light! But every time the world says “no,” you crumble, lose your flame— and I can’t watch you waste the man who carries history in his name! (she softens, trembling) I know you feel forgotten. I know you feel undone. But I won’t watch you bury what you’re destined to become. [Final Chorus – devastating, then hopeful] LINCOLN (crushed): Maybe I was foolish to think the world would call… MARY (soft, holding his face): But you’re not done, my Abraham— this is not your fall… BOTH (rising): A man can break in pieces before he stands up tall— but the stars don’t dim forever… they rise… after the fall. [Coda – whispered] LINCOLN: If the path is truly mine… let it find me in the night. MARY (holding him): And when the next storm calls your name… you’ll be ready for the fight.
