When the Reaper Becomes the Watcher Lyrics [Intro | whispered / spoken] I learned young love and leverage wear the same face and every perfect home has a room where the truth goes to die [Verse 1] Lunch bag hollow, winter in my ribs Ash in the Pepsi, poison on the lips Windows rolled up while the grown folks grin Sayin’ kids won’t remember this Smoke in my blood, prayer in my throat God never answered, just swallowed the note Knife to my neck, fear cold in the dark I learned how to live with a war in my heart [Pre-Chorus] Every saint in the room had a price on their grace Every gift was a test, every smile a straight face I was kept alive just to watch what monsters do So I became the proof [Chorus] When the Reaper becomes the Watcher I stop begging heaven for a sign Built my code from ruin and fracture Read the fault lines one lie at a time I was raised where love wore a muzzle Where control dressed up like a home Now I don’t chase crowns or saviors I count the shadows And I carry my own [Verse 2] Victorian walls, clean cage, shut door Porch-talk prophet givin’ truth by the floor “Give the context, son, and the truth holds weight” Then the same man lived by results and hate No trace of me in the sink, no crumb on the couch Keep food out the room, keep the ghost in your mouth Printed my calls, read my pages, called witness a lie Taught me a boundary sounds like goodbye [Pre-Chorus] First boy broke, then I wore his name Then my sister caught the same old flame House kept breaking kids then blaming the smoke I stopped choking on the joke [Chorus] When the Reaper becomes the Watcher I stop mistaking chains for home Learned the map from cuts and cautions Turned dead ends into roads of my own I was raised where truth got edited Where the guilty still wrote the code Now I don’t need fear to guard me I watch the pattern And I follow it home [Verse 3] Friend in the water, friend in a grave Boys turned ghosts, men turned strange Cops with a story before they found proof Church full of whispers dressed up as truth Letter on the dresser, keys left in the room Threats on the phone like a storm in bloom They called me liar, runaway, plague But I was the eyes that remembered the cage [Bridge | melodic, rising] I saw the wound inside the people who hurt me Saw the shame underneath the scream Saw a house look perfect from the roadside Still come apart at the seams And I know now love is not ownership truth is not disobedience and silence is not peace [Breakdown | screamed / half-time] You said Children should be seen, not heard So I became the eyes You said Results matter, not the reasons So I memorized the lies You said Love means stay where we can own you No Love means leave and still tell the truth [Final Chorus | huge] When the Reaper became the Watcher I quit dying in other men’s wars Now I stand in the doorway and name it Every lock, every scar, every ghost in these halls I was the boy in the crossfire Now I’m the man who can finally choose I was kept alive just to watch what monsters do Now the Watcher watches too John- Editors note. cut song off here when porting to davinci resolve. ending sounds......... edgy in not a good way lol [Outro | soft / spoken] Not to haunt Not to hunt Just to see And never go blind again
