Treasure, Not a Chain (Cold Machine Mix)

[Intro] [Short Instrumental] [Beat Drop] [Verse 1] You stayed in the back of my mind, in the glass, in the smoke, in the late train home, in the blue light flicker off the window, in the part of the night I never really talked about You stayed in the turn of a phrase, in the heat of a room, in the pause after names, in the way I could make one second of us feel heavy enough to carry for months I kept telling myself maybe time would shift it, maybe distance would thin it, maybe one more season would turn what I felt into something easier to set down But I was still walking around with your shadow folded into my bloodstream, still calling it memory when it was really a weight I got used to dragging around I’m not here to deny it, not here to cheapen it, not here to act like what we had was small just because I need a cleaner way out Not here to blame you, not here to ask you, not here to send one last message into the dark just to hear my own voice coming back This is just me drawing a line through the habit, through the loop, through the version of me that kept turning your absence into a place I was living inside Keeping the heat, keeping the truth, keeping the part that was real, keeping my feet on the ground and the rest of me moving [Pre-Chorus] I don’t need to hate you to move I don’t need to bury the proof Some things stay bright when they’re done Some things stay gold in the blood [Chorus] I walk away with the light, not the loss Take what was mine, leave the cost You were not nothing, you were not pain You were my treasure, never my chain I keep the memory, lose the weight Keep the fire, change my fate I know what we were, I know what remains Something I carry Never a chain [Female Chorus Accent] Never a chain [Verse 2] Maybe I hear your name in a crowd when the speakers are loud and the whole street jumps and for half a second the city bends around a feeling I almost thought I had worn out Maybe I stop, maybe I breathe, maybe your face hits the back of my eyes with that same clean ache, not enough to pull me under now, just enough to remind me what it was about Maybe that’s all right, maybe that’s human, maybe healing was never supposed to mean empty or cold or clean or turning the color all the way down Maybe it just means I can keep what was beautiful without giving the past the keys every time the night comes around I used to think moving on meant cutting it off, shutting it down, killing the spark, closing the book and pretending the whole thing was easier than it was Now I think moving on is keeping the truth without kneeling to it, feeling it pass through the room without letting it tell me who I am or who I was I’ve got too much pulse in my chest, too much road in front of me, too much life I haven’t touched yet to keep making a home out of unfinished lines Too much future to hand to a ghost, too much breath to waste staying loyal to silence, I’m done standing still [Pre-Chorus] I can remember and still choose speed Still keep the spark and cut the need Still say you mattered, still move ahead Still feel the night and leave the dead [Chorus] I walk away with the light, not the loss Take what was mine, leave the cost You were not nothing, you were not pain You were my treasure, never my chain I keep the memory, lose the weight Keep the fire, change my fate I know what we were, I know what remains Something I carry Never a chain [Female Chorus Accent] Treasure Never a chain [Bridge / Spoken Flow] No, I’m not saying it faded easy No, I’m not saying it left no mark No, I’m not throwing your name to the floor just to make myself look hard I’m saying I know the difference now Between what I keep and what I drag Between a beautiful wound I survived And a door I don’t walk back through [Build] I kept the heat long enough I wore the night long enough Now I take the gold and go Now I let the dead weight drop [Final Chorus] I walk away with the light, not the loss Take what was mine, leave the cost You were not nothing, you were not pain You were my treasure, never my chain I keep the memory, lose the weight Keep the fire, change my fate I know what we were, I know what remains Something I carry Never a chain [Female Chorus Accent] Never a chain