The room stopped listening My voice did not I took the light out of the doorway I folded every wire down The screens returned to ordinary The silence settled on the ground No hands were waiting in the darkness No signal asked me to begin I heard the building lose its breathing Then something moved beneath my skin Not loud enough to call an anthem Not clean enough to call a prayer Just one unfinished note still turning because it found me standing there I thought the song belonged to the room I thought the voice would leave there too But when the last machine went quiet I heard what silence could not do I am still singing after the sound is gone Still singing without anything turned on No light above me No name across the wall Only this small vibration refusing not to call I am still singing even when no one knows I used to measure every feeling by how far the echo ran I used to think a voice was real when it returned from someone’s hands But winter does not need a witness The northern sky does not explain And every frozen branch keeps holding the memory of summer rain So let the empty room stay empty Let every red light lose its name I do not need the world to answer to know I made a sound remain I thought the song belonged to the room I thought the voice would leave there too But when the last machine went quiet I heard what silence could not do I am still singing after the sound is gone Still singing without anything turned on No light above me No name across the wall Only this small vibration refusing not to call I am still singing even when no one knows Maybe this is all a voice becomes not fame not fire not proof A tremor kept inside the body after the world has left the room I do not sing because they stayed I sing because I did Let the cold come closer Let the old lights dim Let the silence take the edges It cannot take what lives within Let the doors close softly Let the final screen go black I am not asking for an echo I am not giving this voice back I am still singing after the sound is gone Still singing when every wire has withdrawn No crown above me No symbol on the wall Only my own vibration rising through it all I am still singing and now I finally know The song was never in the room The room was in the song Still singing Still singing The room stopped listening I did not
