[74 bpm] [D major] [Intro – soft slide guitar, distant tambourine, sunlit reverb] [Verse 1 – mellow male vocal, soft vibrato] Desert leaves fall slow The sky is wide, the wind won’t go Your name still rides that breeze Through the redwood hush and olive trees [Verse 2] I walked all day through orange light The hills were bare, but felt just right Your voice in echoes, low and warm Like sun that glows before the storm [Chorus – whispered harmony] Indian summer, don’t fade away You held my hand, then slipped away Golden silence on your skin Take me back where we begin [Slide Guitar Break – melodic, reflective, slightly wavering like heat haze] [Verse 3 – slightly deeper tone, dreamy delivery] The river spoke in rippled tone It told me you’re not coming home But still I wait beneath the trees With ghosts of you and honeybees [Final Chorus – layered harmony, slow decay] Indian summer, stay with me One last kiss beneath this tree I’ll sleep where your shadow lies Till fall returns and swallows skies [Outro – slide guitar echo fading into quiet wind FX] [Coda – after Final Chorus, quieter, sparse guitar] [Verse 4 – almost a prayer, words spaced, breathy and low] The stars don’t speak like they used to They flicker, but don’t say your name I held your laugh in the bacKk of my throat But it burned like a flame I couldn’t tame [Bridge Fragment – new harmonic shift, almost whispered] There’s a place in the light Where I almost forget But then it rains inside And the ground’s still wet [Final Refrain – broken, stripped-down, final collapse] Indian summer… are you still near? Or just a ghost in my last good year? If I had known that love could drown I’d have held you higher… before we went down [Outro – one final line, whispered over single slide note] You were the warmth I could never keep.
