[Verse 1] I watched myself in the parlor chair, A shadow sewn in a cotton dress, My hands were folded like evening prayer, My breath unhooked from the mortal chest. The clock still ticked on its narrow shelf, But time unpinned from its trembling frame, I saw the distance from self to self And knew the girl by another name. [Chorus] Through Death’s quiet window, I lean and look inside, At the little life I carried, like a secret I would hide. Every hush and heartbeat, every letter left unread, I wander through her daylight with the eyes that watched her dead. [Verse 2] I watched her pacing the upstairs hall, A lantern caged in a fragile hand, She named each shadow upon the wall And called it God, though she’d not demand. She brewed her questions like winter tea, Steeped too strong for the lips of men, I saw her bargain with mystery, Then fold it softly inside her pen. [Chorus] Through Death’s quiet window, I lean and look inside, At the little life I carried, like a secret I would hide. Every hush and heartbeat, every letter left unread, I wander through her daylight with the eyes that watched her dead. [Bridge] I see the summers she did not spend, Past the pale gate where the lilacs bend, Hear hymns that never reached her tongue, Songs unwritten, forever young. I touch the moments she locked away, Pressed like violets, dry and grey, Yet in their silence, bright and clear, I feel her absence drawing near. [Verse 3] I watched her stitching the dusk to dawn, With threads of ink on untroubled sheets, She wrote of going and yet not gone, Of narrow losses and small defeats. She feared the thunder but loved the storm, Held fast to doubt like a faithful friend, I, Death, stood patient beyond her form, Counting the pulses that would not end. [Chorus] Through Death’s quiet window, I lean and look inside, At the little life I carried, like a secret I would hide. Every hush and heartbeat, every letter left unread, I wander through her daylight with the eyes that watched her dead. [Outro] Now, still as snow on a broken stone, She rests within what she could not see, Yet from my distance she’s never lone— Her tiny realm keeps watching me. Through Death’s quiet window, I wait beside her door, For life was but a whisper, and I know her evermore.
