Ashen Skates (The Little Match Girl)

[Intro] [Cold wind hisses, thin match-clicks count the dark. Distant bell tolls, a child’s breath becomes a spark.] [Verse 1] City teeth bite glass beneath her feet, Frost eats the hem where winter and hunger meet. Matches cradle warmth in coppered bone, She lights for ghosts and names she’ll never own. [Chorus] Strike and bleeding light — burn the paper sky, Little match girl screams to the frozen night. Ashen skates of hope, slide and then divide, In each small flame a mother's face appears and hides. [Verse 2] Shopfront saints with frosted crowns look on, Their gold is a rumor; their warmth long gone. She trades her match for a memory brief, Counting embers as if they were beliefs. [Chorus] Strike and bleeding light — burn the paper sky, Little match girl screams to the frozen night. Ashen skates of hope, slip and then combust, Her match-lit saints collapse into the dust. [Final] One last strike; smoke writes her name in white. The snow takes her steps and hides the light.