[Verse 1] The floorboards ache under my restless pacing (echo) …restless pacing Every shadow bends wrong without your weight in the world Streetlight bleeds through the blinds like it’s trespassing And I can’t recall the last thing you heard me say (hold say) Time is a cruel, unblinking witness (soft) …it keeps on moving But it never brings you home Every tick is a knife in the stillness And I’m left here learning… how absence can grow (long grow) [Chorus] (soft start → rise) How… are you gone? (HOLD “gone”) When your voice still lives in the walls of this room (hold room) When my chest still expects you to walk in too soon When the night feels like it’s holding your shape in the dark (hold dark) (softer) How… are you gone… And yet you’re still everywhere in my heart (HOLD “heart”) [Verse 2] I keep finding you in the seams of the day The hum of the fridge, the flicker of the porch light Even the air seems to stutter in your name’s way (slight breath) Like the world’s afraid to forget what it felt like Grief has a mouth and it keeps on speaking (pause) In half-formed echoes I can’t unhear It’s the kind of pain that never stops leaking (HOLD leaking) And it stains everything I hold near [Bridge] Maybe you’re somewhere I can’t reach Telling me it’s okay (pause) even if I can’t believe Maybe you’re the cold wind leaning through the trees Or the silent weight sinking me to my knees (HOLD knees) I search every sky for a sign you’re not gone for good (breath) But all I get is the ache saying I’d trade my life if I could (HOLD could) [Chorus] How… are you gone? (HOLD gone) When my pulse still runs toward the sound of your name When the mirror still swears we both look the same When I’d swear I felt your hand on my shoulder last night (long night) (softer) How… are you gone… And yet still living inside every part of my life (HOLD life) [Outro] The world spins on… (fade) but it’s breaking me slow I keep asking the question… (pause) I’ll never know How are you gone… (HOLD gone, let fade)
