Behind the Colors (Male Version)

[Intro] I was only passing through. That's what I tell myself. Then— the tiger looked back. [Verse 1] Hotel corner. Pop-colored walls. Paintings I would never hang at home. Too bright. Too loud. Not mine. Keep walking. I didn't. A tiger, bleeding softly into watercolor, had already picked me out. [Verse 2] An owl dressed in midnight. A crow that knew too much. A giraffe with gentle eyes. A white dragon dissolving into blue. Water carried every color somewhere my hands could never reach. Five minutes. Ten. Time disappeared. [Pre-Chorus] Then I met the woman behind the colors. Strangely clear. Almost transparent. "I've drawn since I was a child." She smiled. Oh. So did I. [Chorus] Her. Her. Me. One who never stopped painting. One who still takes me out sometimes. And me— the one who put the brush down. Three women standing before a tiger. And suddenly the girl I used to be found me. [Verse 3] Why did I stop? Wrong question. There wasn't one reason. There were years. Now I spread words where paper used to be. No red. No blue. No brush in my hand. Still— I leave colors inside people. [Glitch Break] Paint. Word. Color. Voice. Hide. Hide. Hide— Found. [Bridge] In front of someone so transparent, I am still very good at hiding the strange shape of myself. Funny. She didn't notice. Maybe. But the tiger did. [Final Chorus] Her. Her. Me. Different colors on opposite sides of the watercolor. She paints. I write. Maybe we've been doing the same damn thing— dragging invisible things into the light so somebody else can finally see them. [Outro] I thought I walked toward the tiger. Maybe I didn't. Maybe the tiger had been waiting there for the woman who stopped painting. Maybe it wasn't calling me back. Maybe— it was just saying, There you are.