[DRUMS] --- [VERSE 1] I wear it all just right — the shirt, the walk, the smile. You’d never know what’s underneath won’t hold the line. I dress the math. I know the fall of fabric, eye, and hand. But standing still, without the frame, was never what I planned. Naked is a place I’ve never learned to stand. --- [REFRAIN 1] So don’t turn the light on. Don’t ask where I went. I’m only real when I’m not seen — I’m beauty by consent. --- [VERSE 2] I’ve been charming, I’ve been quick — I’ve made lovers feel like kings. I’ve got a mouth full of timing and a mind that misses nothing. Some say I’m built for it. Some just stay quiet. They see what they want in the parts I’ve curated to survive the riot. What they’re seeing, they’re building from things they only heard. --- [CHORUS 1] Don’t look too close — you’ll see where I’m stitched. Don’t turn the lights up — you’ll feel where I flinch. It works in the dark — it all holds just fine. But don’t make me stand there like that body is mine. --- [VERSE 3] I can perform at entry — my voice arrives before I do. Even laughter’s calculated to fall the way they need it to. Got the voice, got the timing, got the tools in the case. But I wear this like a promise I can’t let slip out of place. Can’t remember the last time I stood still and felt like me — not polished, not rehearsed, just something that could breathe and be. --- [CHORUS 2] Don’t look too close — you’ll see where it bends. Don’t ask me to name it — I lose all my friends. It fits in your hand — it breaks in my mind. And don’t call it freedom if I can’t come inside. --- [BRIDGE] You say I’m perfect in the dark. You wouldn’t lie to me. But that’s the point — you never have to see. You touch me right, but only where I already agree. The rest of me is someone else I keep inside of me. --- [REFRAIN 2] So don’t turn the light on. Don’t reach too far. I’m whole enough if you don’t look at every part I are. --- [VERSE 4] There’s nothing here I’m hiding — I just don’t know how to show a pattern that was stitched from doubt and worn too long to know. It’s not shame, and it’s not fear. Just echoes I can’t name. It works at night. It even sings. But day rewrites the frame. --- [VERSE 5] There are rooms I’ve learned to light in tones that don’t expose. A warmth without dimension, a welcome no one chose. You think that’s kindness — I call it climate control. A life arranged in layers that vanish when made whole. --- [VERSE 6] Some rooms don’t ask questions. Some voices don’t press. They just move through the silence, and call it a yes. I built a whole language from gestures and space. Now every word feels out of place. --- [VERSE 7] I’m not asking for rescue. I’m not asking for proof. I just want one place where I can stop holding the roof. If I ever come open, it won’t be a show. It’ll be quiet, and only I’ll know. --- [VERSE 8] Once, I thought of standing as something I could do. To stand without arrangement. To stay. To be. With me. But even in the dreaming, my eyes begin to squint. Not cruel. Not curious. Just searching for the hint. --- [VERSE 9] I’ve read my name in silence, heard my worth in tone. Spent hours making meaning from what should stay unknown. Not broken, not whole, but stretched in suggestion — a body rehearsed in every direction. --- [VERSE 10] I measure rooms by light and exits by their sound. I’ve learned to soften presence without sticking to the ground. This isn’t survival — it’s technique, it’s breath. An art of remaining without risking death. --- [FINAL REFRAIN / OUTRO] So don’t turn the light on. Just come close and stay. Some things only fit when the world looks away. So don’t turn the light on. Don’t ask where I went. I’m only real when I’m not seen — I’m beauty by consent. when the world looks away from .. no! at! I’m beauty by consent.
