[D Dorian, slow dirge tempo, no click] [Intro | wordless hum | small choir of child-like voices intoning like mourners | distant, unhurried] [Verse 1 | hushed close-mic lead | piano and muted low guitar state the processional figure alone] The seal cracked first at a fevered wrist, a shiver spilled loose from a small clenched fist. Thermometer glass and the mercy rising, under the ache, a warmth surprising. [Chorus | choir doubles the lead, intoning together | strings shadow beneath | blended not harmonized] Something small keeps humming beneath the harm, something small keeps holding beneath the swarm. Each ache we carried was born with a coal, lit long before the hunger took hold. [Verse 2 | same hushed lead | violin, viola, cello enter beneath] Grief came next in a borrowed black coat, a fury behind it, a fire in the throat. Names that we called out came back with a bruise, and something stayed lit in the dark we could use. [Chorus | choir doubles the lead, intoning together | strings shadow beneath | blended not harmonized] Something small keeps humming beneath the harm, something small keeps holding beneath the swarm. Each ache we carried was born with a coal, lit long before the hunger took hold. [Instrumental | piano and strings carry the processional figure alone, guitar drops out | the distorted swell rises early here, once, then falls away | fades to near silence] [Verse 3 | lead alone again, strings and guitar drop out | space opens up] Last came the stillness, the slow kind of cold, a jar left standing with nothing left to hold. We searched the last corner for something missing, and found we'd given it out while listening. [Final Chorus | full choir, intoning together | distorted swell rises once at the mix's edge then recedes | single soft mallet pulse only, no fills] Nothing was saved for last in the swarm, we were the humming beneath every harm. Each ache had a coal we were born to hold, we were the holding, the hope in the cold. [Outro | hum returns | fades under silence] (We were just early.)
