(Intro) (A soft, walking bassline emerges from the silence, steady as a heartbeat. The piano adds gentle, dissonant jazz chords that shimmer like oil on asphalt. The snare brushes kiss the cymbal.) (Verse) The skyline is a jagged tooth Biting at the hem of the moon I’m walking home through the spilled ink Of an afternoon that ended too soon The storefronts are empty, looking for ghosts Or someone to offer a light I’m just a silhouette counting the cracks In the grand architecture of the night. (Chorus) And the streetlights are drowning in the rain Like stars that fell out of their clothes Every puddle is a postcard of a memory That nobody else ever knows It’s a lonesome kind of velvet Draped over the shoulders of the town And I’m just trying to keep the shadows From weighing me down. (Verse) The sidewalk is singing a low, gravel tune Beneath the soles of my worn-out shoes There’s a stray dog shivering under a stoop Giving me the benefit of all his bad news I’m breathing the steam from a manhole cover Like it’s the only warmth I can find In a city that’s made of iron and glass And built out of pieces of a fractured mind. (Chorus) And the streetlights are drowning in the rain Like stars that fell out of their clothes Every puddle is a postcard of a memory That nobody else ever knows It’s a lonesome kind of velvet Draped over the shoulders of the town And I’m just trying to keep the shadows From weighing me down. (Bridge) (Muted trumpet solo: aching, conversational, wandering through the melody like a man looking for his keys) The neon signs are stuttering in blue and red Like a heart that’s got too much to say And the city is breathing behind my back Telling me it’s better this way Don’t look back, don’t look up, don’t look for the door Just keep moving across the floor. (Verse) The morning is coming, a pale, tired thief Waiting in the alley to steal the dark I see my reflection in a car window pane And I’m just a question mark looking for a spark But there’s a quiet beauty in the wreckage of it all When the siren stops its mournful cry And the city’s finally finished with its secrets And it’s too tired to even lie. (Chorus) And the streetlights are drowning in the rain Like stars that fell out of their clothes Every puddle is a postcard of a memory That nobody else ever knows It’s a lonesome kind of velvet Draped over the shoulders of the town And I’m just trying to keep the shadows From weighing me down. (Outro) (Piano drifts off into a descending scale. The bass holds one long, resonant note. A final, soft brush stroke on the snare.) Just the reflections. Dancing in the street. Walking on water. With tired, tired feet. Keep moving. Just keep moving.
