[Verse 1] I saw a crimson halo drifting through the morning light, Shadows on the ceiling where the colours weren’t quite right. Every beam was fractured by a secret in the eye, A whisper in the vitreous, a cloud that drifted by. The doctor drew a circle on a chart of black and white, Spoke of hidden embers burning just beyond my sight. Cells like silent travellers moving through a sea of blue, A fire behind the iris where the world once shimmered true. [Chorus] Through the quiet flame, through the silver haze, Searching for the shoreline in a thousand changing shades. Through the quiet flame, where the strange lights roam, Holding to a distant star that guides the vision home. [Verse 2] The hours turned to seasons in the waiting-room parade, Drops and tablets marching through the shadows that they made. Every flare a thunderstorm, every calm a borrowed day, Every glance toward the sunlight carried fragments swept away. The retinal horizon seemed to bend and rearrange, A universe of floating forms in patterns dark and strange. Yet somewhere in the silence of the chambers deep within, A fragile peace was forming where the storm had always been. [Instrumental Interlude] (Mellotron strings, reverse guitar textures, Leslie organ, soaring guitar solo) [Verse 3] I met a thousand faces in the corridors of care, Each one carrying a story only fellow travellers share. Some had crossed through cataracts, some through shadows vast and wide, Yet every soul still carried hope alive behind the tide. The names were long and complicated, written in a careful hand, Behçet’s, birdshot, sarcoidosis—mysteries to understand. But beyond the charts and diagnoses, beyond the scans and screens, There remained a human spirit chasing all the light that means. [Chorus] Through the quiet flame, through the silver haze, Searching for the shoreline in a thousand changing shades. Through the quiet flame, where the strange lights roam, Holding to a distant star that guides the vision home. [Bridge] And the stars behind the eyelids Turn like ancient wheels of gold, Drawing maps across the darkness, Telling stories yet untold. In the chambers of perception, Where the hidden currents flow, There are galaxies of colour Only dreamers ever know. [Extended Instrumental Passage] (Odd-meter bass ostinato, Mellotron choir, phasing guitars, organ improvisation) [Final Chorus] Through the quiet flame, through the silver haze, Past the drifting floaters and the bright inflammatory blaze. Through the quiet flame, where the long nights roam, Finding in the fading light a pathway leading home. [Outro] The morning breaks in amber, The shadows slowly part, And somewhere past the iris, A new horizon starts. The fire grows quiet, The colours return the same, But I’ll always hear the echoes Of the journey through the flame.
