Page By Page (Remastered)

[Verse 1] I found your book in the drawer Brown cover, soft at the spine Your name in that careful script Like you knew I’d reach in time A grocery list on the front page Then tears in the middle lines You wrote, “keep going, baby” Between the holes in your pride [Verse 2] You talk about cold water The kind that cuts through a pan About work with split hands And a boss who never learned your name About bus rides before sunrise And the church shoes passed down twice About sugar in a mason jar When the rent ate every night [Pre-Chorus] And I hear you now Through the crackle and dust Every page says survival Every line says trust You were young in the fire Still you carried the flame I trace your hard-won lessons Like I’m learning my name [Chorus] Page by page I feel you breathe Page by page You’re here with me Page by page You made a way (page by page) Page by page [Verse 3] You wrote about the marching The doors, the shouts, the fear The way your hands kept shaking But you never disappeared You said some nights were empty Some names got taken away Still you fed the ones beside you Then woke up anyway [Verse 4] There’s a picture by the back flap Your smile half gone, half bright A chain on your wrist in the photo And rage in your eyes I read where you forgave them Not for them, for your son You said, “son, don’t let this world Teach you to become one” [Pre-Chorus] And I hear you now Through the crackle and dust Every page says survival Every line says trust You were young in the fire Still you carried the flame I trace your hard-won lessons Like I’m learning my name [Chorus] Page by page I feel you breathe Page by page You’re here with me Page by page You made a way (page by page) Page by page [Bridge] [Breakdown] I sit real still At your kitchen table ghost Your journal in my lap And the room feels close I’m not just reading history I’m reading how to stay How to hold my head up When the world turns grey [Final Chorus] Page by page I feel you breathe Page by page You’re here with me Page by page You made a way (page by page) Page by page [Outro] Brown cover, soft at the spine Your voice in the paper lines I close it slow, then I stand Carrying your life in my hands