[Intro - spoken, older female, frail but clear, oxygen tank hiss, vinyl crackle] He thinks I’m sleeping... I’m always listening... [Verse 1 - piano alone, soft, then upright bass enters, hospital room quiet] I heard the rain in his footsteps Twenty years of coming home dry Then one spring he came in soaking And he didn’t know why I heard the jazz in his humming He hadn’t hummed since ‘68 When the war took his brother And the silence took our gate I heard her name in his breathing When he thought I was asleep "Mademoiselle" on his exhale A secret he couldn’t keep [Pre-Chorus - strings enter, muted, dignity not bitterness] I’ve been sick since before she was born He married me out of pity, I know Not love... not at first... but he stayed Through the scans, through the snow And I... I stopped waiting For the man he was before Until the rain brought him home changed [Chorus - warm, tragic, no anger, just grace] Oh my love, I heard the rain And I knew you’d found the sun again In some girl’s eyes, in some café And I... I thanked God you did Because you came home humming After twenty years dead You touched my hand like I was new I heard the rain... and I forgave you [Verse 2 - cello, deeper, confessional] He told me last Tuesday. All of it. The poems. The cellar. The night he quit Himself to save her. He wept in my lap Like a boy. Like my husband. Like that I held his silver hair and said "Thank you for telling me the truth Thank you for choosing to come home Instead of chasing your youth" He said "I’m sorry I fell" I said "I’m sorry you stopped Feeling anything at all Before she made your heart drop" [Pre-Chorus - bigger, but still gentle, strings weep] I don’t want a man out of duty I want a man who knows how to feel She woke you up, my love And brought you back to me for real [Chorus - repeat, add quiet choir, more peace] Oh my love, I heard the rain And I knew your heart had beat again In some girl’s laugh, in some sad song And I... I’m glad you went Because you came home crying And you held me all night long You said my name like it was prayer I heard the rain... and I was there [Bridge - breakdown, spoken over piano, no music for last line] Do I wish he’d loved me like that at nineteen? Of course. I’m human. I’m vain. I’m mean. But I got him at fifty-three, broken and true, With a heart that remembered how to bruise And how to heal. Because of her. So I will die grateful. I will die sure. That I was loved... in the end... by a man who knew [Final Chorus - orchestra very soft, dying fall, acceptance] Oh my love, don’t hide the rain From me. I’m not your ball and chain I’m the harbor you came back to When the storm of her was through You fell for spring... and brought me summer In the last days I have left So thank you... for the rain... For coming home... forgiven... blessed... [Outro - slow fade, oxygen hiss, distant thunder, vinyl crackle] Tell her... thank you... from me...
