Ember’s Farewell

I held your palm in the dusk’s thin breath Streetlamp hummed the hush of death Your scarf, a thread of cardinal red Tangled in the bones of words unsaid Your voice, a echo in the hall’s blank throat I count the steps till the walls remote Start to shrink, paper-thin and pale Like vows we sealed with a fragile nail

I don’t wanna see, don’t wanna hear Don’t wanna know you’re still lingering here In the hush, in the ash’s crust A memory I can’t trust

Oh, ember’s farewell, slow and low Burning out before the dark can know The embers dim, the smoke drifts on A love that’s gone, but not quite gone Oh, ember’s farewell, soft and thin I’m still here, where your ghost’s been In the floorboard cracks, in the rain’s slow fall A shadow that outlasts all

I passed your house, the curtains sewn shut The garden’s heart turned to dust You planted roses, red as sin’s first breath Now their thorns carve my ribs till there’s nothing left I found a note, the ink bled blue Words I can’t bear to unfurl to you “I loved you once,” the page did plead But love’s a flame that dissolves to seed

I don’t wanna see, don’t wanna hear Don’t wanna know you’re still lingering here In the hush, in the ash’s crust A memory I can’t trust

Oh, ember’s farewell, slow and low Burning out before the dark can know The embers dim, the smoke drifts on A love that’s gone, but not quite gone Oh, ember’s farewell, soft and thin I’m still here, where your ghost’s been In the floorboard cracks, in the rain’s slow fall A shadow that outlasts all

The wind breathes your name in the night’s cold ear I close my eyes, I try to steer My soul away from the ache’s sharp sting The ghost of what used to cling You’re a chord I can’t unlearn A bridge I’ll never turn From the edge of the world, from the spell Of this ember’s farewell

I held your palm in the dusk’s thin breath Streetlamp hummed the hush of death Your scarf, a thread of cardinal red Tangled in the bones of words unsaid