What the Roots Remember

[Verse 1] Morning didn’t rise. It only thinned the dark. Like someone easing pressure Without removing the mark. The ground still dips where the body was laid, Like it learned the shape by heart. I said I’d leave when the light returned- The light never took that part. [Pre-Chorus] The tree still bends. The soil still keeps What I won’t name out loud. Nothing ends. It only sinks Into something lower than sound. [Chorus] I didn’t follow you. I didn’t flee. I stayed where the weight of you stayed with me. If death is sleep, Then grief is the bed- And I’ve been awake Beside it instead. [Verse 2] Roots run deeper than mercy goes, They drink what’s left unsaid. Every almost-prayer, Every word that died in my head. They say time heals, but time just moves- Like weather across a scar. The pain doesn’t fade. It settles in, Learns exactly where you are. [Chorus] I didn’t follow you. I didn’t flee. I stood where the living stop being free. If love survives, It does it wrong- It lives as the ache That outlasts the song. [Bridge] Don’t call this hope. Don’t call it grace. This is endurance stripped of its face. I don’t expect peace. I don’t expect relief. I expect memory. I expect grief. If I ever cross where the quiet begins, Let it not be release or repair- Let it be simply the moment I set down What I carried because no one else was there. [Verse 3] The willow keeps its empty space Like it’s part of the plan. Some absences aren’t wounds- They’re proof you were a man. I don’t ask the ground for answers now. I don’t ask to be made clean. I only ask it to remember That I stood here, And didn’t leave. [Final Chorus] I didn’t follow you. I didn’t flee. I stayed where the living agree to bleed. If meaning exists, It isn’t kind- It’s staying behind When there’s nothing to find. [Verse 4] I don’t believe in closure anymore. I believe in weight. In names you don’t stop carrying Just because it’s late. Some things aren’t meant to heal right. They’re meant to stay. Like a hand on cold stone At the end of the day. [Outro] The roots remember. The soil knows. What we bury doesn’t go. Someone stayed. Someone stood. And that will have to be Good.