Smoke Above the Downbeat

[Verse 1] Stage haze curls above the first brushed downbeat. A small rhythm gathers where the long day ends. I keep my hands steady and listen for the change. [Pre-Chorus] I sing behind the time until the truth catches up. We make no promise louder than we can keep. [Chorus] Smoke Above the Downbeat, stay with me through the turning. Smoke Above the Downbeat, say the thing the dark could not erase. Let the final line arrive in its own time. We will know the way by how the last word lands. [Verse 2] The hour moves forward, leaving room around the truth. I meet it without hurry, without dressing it in gold. What was only distance becomes a road beneath us. What was only silence finds a voice and finds a home. [Bridge] No borrowed thunder, no convenient ending. Only breath, only ground, only one clear name. [Final Chorus] Smoke Above the Downbeat, stay with me through the turning. Let the final line arrive in its own time. We will know the way by how the last word lands.