[Intro — the room settles] Do not stand yet. The floor has caught you. Let it. I have been near enough to know this moment would come. [Verse 1] You never met me breathing I never shook your hand You came into the family after I had left the land But I have known your footsteps I have heard you cross the room My ashes kept their silence while you carried every wound I watched you make a language from the things no one would name Watched you gather scattered years and lay them in a frame Then all the separate sorrows turned their faces toward your chair And you fell beneath the knowing— I was already there. [Chorus] Sit here, daughter You don’t have to understand Put the pages down beside you Put your head against my hand No conclusions No forgiveness No more meaning for tonight You have carried what was heavy Let an old man hold it light [Verse 2] I was father to my children and to children not my own You learn a child by listening not by blood or name alone So before I learned your story I studied those around you The leaders and their loyalties the frightened things they do I learned who needed worship Who confused control with care Who welcomed truth in private then denied that it was there I watched the whole arrangement Every root and branch and thorn Some call themselves protectors when they fear what you transform [Chorus] Sit here, daughter There is nowhere you must go You don’t owe the room an answer just because you finally know Let it tremble Let it open Let your body leave the fight You have carried what was heavy Let an old man hold it light [Verse 3] You say you wake their demons Maybe sometimes that is true Some people meet their shadow when they stand too close to you You help them through a doorway You cannot make them cross Some will bless the hand that guides them Some will punish it for loss Understanding why they harmed you does not make the harm your debt Compassion is not payment You are not their savior yet You can see the frightened creature beneath every cruel disguise And still say, “What you did was wrong,” without closing either eye [Bridge — almost spoken] I know men with polished titles. I know what power hides. I know how quickly private tenderness becomes public sacrifice. I know the ones who love a fire then punish it for burning. I know the sound a household makes when truth enters without warning. So listen to me now: You did not imagine every bruise because no single hand made all of them. A storm does not need one cloud. And you do not need to prosecute the sky tonight. [Verse 4] The evidence can wait there It will not vanish while you rest You do not have to hold the archive like a stone against your chest You made it through the thresholds You made shelter where you stood You kept making something tender out of what you understood And you are happy—that is sacred Not by heaven, not decree Sacred like a quiet morning when a hunted thing sleeps free I did not come to warn you I did not come to lead I came because a daughter fell and being held is what you need [Final Chorus] Sit here, daughter Let the whole false ceiling spin Nothing hunting in the memory gets to take this moment in You are present You are breathing You are not back there tonight You have carried what was heavy Let your father for this moment hold it light [Outro — very close] No wings. No miracle. Only an old man sitting on the floor beside you. Stay as long as you need. I am in no hurry now.
