[Verse 1]
Porchlight flickered on the night you left — last July at half past ten,
Your laugh hung in the doorway like a coat I couldn't put away.
I trace the rim of your chipped coffee cup, the lipstick on my pen,
The map we never folded back, the roads that sing your name.
[Pre-Chorus]
There’s dust on postcards, and a song that won't stop humming,
A kitchen window full of light where you used to stand.
[Chorus 1]
You’re the echo I still carry — soft as breath beneath my skin,
A single bell that keeps on ringing when the day grows thin.
You’re the echo I still carry — close enough to make me ache,
Alive in every silence, the music I can't shake.
[Verse 2]
I wear your sweater on the couch, your scent a memory slow and warm,
The city yawns; a taxi spits rain like confetti on the street.
I count the ways the night will shape the hollow and the form,
And every corner I turn whispers how our minutes meet.
[Pre-Chorus 2]
Your name is on my calendar in blue and ragged ink,
A paused breath in a doorway where the summer wanted in.
[Chorus 2 — Turn]
You’re the echo I am learning to carry — heavier and kind,
Not just the ache that holds me frozen, but the light that molds my mind.
You’re the echo I am learning to carry — a lantern and a song,
Less a loss that pulls me under, more a place I still belong.
[Bridge — Piano build]
(Start sparse: single low-octave left hand, thin right-hand melody.)
I paced the rooms where laughter lived — the clock still moves in slow motion,
Soft keys like falling rain, and then an arpeggio that climbs.
I let the chords remember you; I let the tempo find devotion,
A hush that grows to something like forgiveness stitched between the lines.
(Then swell: fuller chords, light arpeggios, gentle pedal through the bridge.)
[Chorus 3 — Lifted]
You’re the echo that keeps me carrying — steady as a tide,
A promise that the distance can't unname or unmake inside.
You’re the echo that keeps me carrying — fierce and strangely clear,
Turning grief into a lighthouse that draws me near and near.
[Outro]
So I keep your laugh beneath my ribs, a lantern folded into bone,
I keep the little ordinary things that make a house a home.
You’re the echo I still carry — sometimes soft, sometimes bright,
I keep your light beneath my ribs and walk with it into the night.
[Piano arrangement notes]
- Intro: low single-note motif in left hand (measure-long), sparse RH harmonics.
- Verses: quiet block chords, room for vocal breath; use space between phrases.
- Pre-chorus: add a suspending sus chord to lead into the hook.
- Chorus 1: keep intimate, middle register; Chorus 2: enrich with inner-voice motion.
- Bridge: build from single-voice to full arpeggiated accompaniment.
- Final chorus/outro: gentle modulation or thicker voicing to lift; end with a soft low-register piano tag.
