[Verse 1] You came to me dressed for bad weather, Denim shoulders, pockets full of rain, A secondhand sword and a stubborn heart You kept insisting felt no pain. You’d learned to make a home of leaving, To laugh before the floor gave way, And every time the world called you difficult, You found something smaller you could save. A dog, a fish, a frightened stranger, Two children sleeping down the hall— You’d spend the blood inside your body Just to keep them from the fall. Then apologize for shaking, Like your trembling was a crime. Arthur, you have always given What you never had in time. [Pre-Chorus] And I know every road you take When you don’t want to be found. I know how quietly you break. I know the brave, ridiculous sound— [Chorus] You choose rock. Every single time. Close your hand around your hope And call surrender strategy. You choose rock When the scissors flash like knives, When the paper keeps a record Of the man they said you couldn’t be. And I— I choose the hand before it opens. I choose the truth beneath the bluff. You think love should make you easy. I have never wanted easy love. [Verse 2] You put bluebells in my language, Hung a key against my chest, Gave a black pen its own proper name And tried to write yourself to rest. You make kingdoms out of kitchens, Stars from cracks in borrowed rooms, Build an island for the lonely, Then forget to leave space for you. You’ll stand between the teeth and someone Half as frightened as you are. You’ll call yourself a coward afterward While bleeding underneath your armour. You distrust every offered kindness, But still turn soft when kindness stays. Like some part of you remembers warmth From somewhere you can’t name. [Pre-Chorus] I know the chill behind your ribs When you think I’ll disappear. I know how love becomes a debt Inside a man raised up on fear. [Chorus] You choose rock. Every single time. Close your hand around your hope As though no one sees it shaking. You choose rock Against the cutting edge of life, And somehow what should break you open Only teaches you more shapes of staying. And I— I choose the hand before it opens. The proud man asking to be held. You think I only love your shining. I have watched you crawl through hell. [Verse 3] I have seen you wearing midnight, Royal blue and borrowed gold, Trying on the shape of manhood Like it wasn’t always yours to hold. I have watched your face grow younger When your children make you laugh, And older when you count the money, Splitting one thin future into halves. You are furious and foolish, Far too generous, sometimes cold. You mistake exhaustion for a failure. You mistake survival for a debt you owe. You can turn your hurt to winter. You can cut me when you’re scared. But you come back with the broken pieces And lay every one of them bare. [Bridge] So let me say the harder thing: I do not love you like a lesson. I will not make you clean and wise. I know the vanity, the temper, The practiced exits, pretty lies. I know you want to be possessed And still keep one hand on the door. I know sometimes you offer less To see if I will ask for more. And I do. Not for your usefulness. Not because you kneel so well. Not for every shining world Your clever, aching hands can build. I want the man who hates his hunger, The writer frightened of the page, The boy who thought that being needed Was the safest kind of cage. I want the laugh you cannot smother, Your sleepy voice, your awkward grace, The startled flush when I speak plainly, And every year upon your face. [Final Chorus] You choose rock. Every single time. Not because you never learn— Because some faiths are worth repeating. You choose rock, And I close my hand around it, Meteorite and bone and promise, Something fallen, still surviving. And if the stars forget our names, If every thread comes loose above, I’ll know you by the worlds you carried For everyone you dared to love. Yes, I— I choose the hand before it opens. I choose the storm beneath the hush. You think love should make you easy. Arthur— You have always been enough To make love difficult. And worth it. [Outro] A lighthouse turning through the darkness. A black swan crossing silver rain. A fist still closed around its answer. Rock. Every time. Again.
