[VERSE 1] [sparse electronic bed, single bass pulse, vocals close and rhythmically tight — the delivery careful, like saying something never said out loud] Everybody knows my name like that means they know my face Everybody needs me present, needs me useful, needs me in my place I've been fluent in their comfort, been conversant in their needs Been so busy being readable I forgot I had a language no one reads I've been capable so constantly it calcified to identity And now the woman underneath is practically a mystery to me I don't know what I reach for when there's nothing left to reach for in the room I've been performing being fine so long the performance became the truth [PRE-CHORUS] [percussion enters low and slow, bass swelling underneath, something opening that's been shut a long time] I don't want to be handled Don't want to be held together Don't want to be the project That somebody weathers I just want somebody To look at me and see Not the function Not the fracture Just me Just me [CHORUS] [slow-burn house pulse drops, bass deep and resonant, vocals fully open — no armor, no irony, just the ask] Find me underneath the capable Find me underneath the strong Find me in the quiet I've been keeping for so long I don't need you to fix it Don't need you to stay Just look at me like I'm a person Not a role Not a résumé Find me Just find me [VERSE 2] [same sparse bed, denser — the rhyme scheme tighter, more interior, the words folding back on themselves like the thought itself] I've been thanked for my composure like composure wasn't costing me a lung Like the steadiness was natural and not something I'd been biting on my tongue I've been praised for my endurance by the people that the endurance was for Never once occurred to them to wonder what I was enduring it all for I've been someone's answer, someone's anchor, someone's north when they were losing ground Someone's proof that someone's steady, someone's lost and found And I keep waiting for the version of this story where somebody looks past the useful part Past the woman who can hold it To the woman with the fractured, still-beating, still-wanting heart [PRE-CHORUS] [same slow build, rawer — the admission fuller, less guarded] I don't want to be admired Don't want to be inspiring Don't want to be the woman Everyone keeps hiring To hold the room together While she's coming apart at the seam I just want somebody To stay Not because they need me Just because [CHORUS] Find me underneath the capable Find me underneath the strong Find me in the quiet I've been keeping for so long I don't need you to fix it Don't need you to stay Just look at me like I'm a person Not a role Not a résumé Find me Just find me [BRIDGE] [production strips to near silence, single pulse, vocals at their most unguarded — no density, no armor, the most devastating admission on the album] I've been so long in the performance I can't find the stage door out I've been so long in the answers I forgot what it felt like to doubt Out loud, in front of someone, without already knowing the end I forgot what it felt like to be known Before the knowing had conditions Before the seeing had an agenda Before being found meant being needed again I just want to exist In a room Without earning it Without explaining it Without it meaning Anything Except that I'm here And that's enough That I'm here And that's enough [OUTRO] [pulse fades slowly, vocals drop to near whisper, ends unresolved — the want still there, unanswered, still alive] Find me I'm still here Somewhere underneath it Find me
