[Intro] [solo acoustic guitar, slow arpeggios, distant wind, A minor] ... ... [Verse 1] [female contralto, dry and close, half-smile in voice, narrow range] You said don't ever apologize for the way you come alive. I heard you, but my hands were full of every word I tried to hide. [upright bass enters, gentle pulse] You cut me clean without a blade— nine words, no ceremony. And I stood there rearranged, wondering how you saw through me. [Pre-Chorus] [bass steadies, cello pad rises underneath] And I don't know what to call this… ... but it answers when I breathe. [Chorus] [harmony opens toward C major, guitar widens, voice unguarded] You teach me up, I teach you down— this is part of a continuum. And we might stop, and we might settle, ... but we are we— always when we want to be. [background choir: "we are, we are, we are, we…" — distant, woven] [Verse 2] [guitar and voice alone, intimate return, slightly lower register] Before the letters and the lines, before the distance learned its name— something knew the shape of this, the way a river knows the rain. [flute enters for the first time — single line, answering, then gone] You scatter light, I hold the flame. You run, I plant, we meet again. I don't know how we learned this dance… ... but neither one of us began. [Pre-Chorus] [viola pad rises, bass pulse returns] And I don't know what to call this… ... but it's older than my name. [Chorus] [fuller now, light brushed snare enters softly, choir layered deeper] You teach me up, I teach you down— this is part of a continuum. And we might stop, and we might settle, ... but we are we— always when we want to be. [background choir continues: "we are, we are, we are, we…"] [Bridge] [strips to guitar barely audible, upright bass, voice alone — no drums, no pads] [vocal grit — chest voice with rasp, held notes breaking at the edges, weathered not fragile] ... Oh we are we… we are… we are… [flute answers, one single line, then silence] ... Oh didn't we always— [held note with grit, voice catching, chest open] oh— ... [flute weaves one more line over sub-bass drone, then air] ... [Final Chorus] [ethereal choir enters fully, guitar warm, cello swelling — recognition not triumph] You teach me up, I teach you down— this is part of a continuum. And we might stop, and we might settle, ... but we are we— always when we want to be. [Outro] [guitar returns clean and warm, flute weaves through once more then fades, choir thinning] Let there be love. And if we can't have that, let there be art. ... Let there be love. And if we can't have that… ... let there be… [whispered, woman's voice, close to the mic, unprocessed] What you choose to do is what is possible. [guitar arpeggio continues alone — unresolved, ambient textures fade, signal still sending] ... ...
