[Intro] [Soft piano, breath] [Verse 1] You keep asking what this is, I tell you it's a shape— the outline of a question mark, a half-drawn fire escape. I'm standing in your doorway like a word you almost said, the afterglow of something that hasn't happened yet. [Verse 2] We pass like ships with different maps who wave but never dock, two hands upon a single face that never learned the clock. You're the theorem I admire from the safety of the page— I'll study you forever, dear, but never take the stage. [Chorus 1] This is a quantum burn, half-life of a distant star— always almost, never quite, forever where you are. The closer that you measure me, the further I appear. I'm the flame that takes forever to finally get here. [Verse 3] I'll meet you at the edge of things, where parallels pretend that if we just kept walking, we might touch before the end. I'm Zeno's arrow, poised and sweet, between the was and will— the slowest kind of motion is learning to stay still. [Verse 4] Some say we're intertwined, I say we're parallel at best— two roads that share a scenery but never share a rest. You're the drink I hold but never taste, the book I never lend, the beautiful beginning of an un-begun end. [Chorus 2] This is a quantum burn, the physics of a scar— always fading, never gone, no matter where you are. The longer that you wait for me, the less there is to find. I'm the heat that leaves no ashes, just the smoke inside your mind. [Bridge] [Strings swell, vulnerable] Maybe in another life, maybe in another frame— we'd collapse into each other and finally share a name. But darling, this is this life, and I know how this ends: the most honest thing I'll give you is the space between our hands. [Verse 5] I'm the letter sealed but never sent, the bridge that starts mid-air, the echo of a promise that was never really there. You can call it hesitation, you can call it playing smart— I call it knowing better than to finish what I start. [Verse 6] They'll ask you what we were someday, and you'll pause before you speak— a flicker or a fortress, something strong or something weak. And maybe that's the beauty of a flame that never burned: the lesson lives forever when the page is never turned. [Verse 7] So wait for me in decimals, in fractions of a chance— I'm the ghost of something certain dressed in circumstance. And when you finally understand the distance in my eyes, you'll see the only finish line is learning to revise. [Final Chorus] This is a quantum burn, a light-year dressed in skin— the only way I'll reach you is if time forgets to end. Call it what you want to, love, call it fate or call it art— I'm the almost that you carry in the margins of your heart. [Outro] [Whispered, fading] Quantum burn... always almost... never quite... [End]
