Beautiful Chartreuse

Intro

We never named this.

Never needed to.

Still—

Every time you appear

the noise goes quiet.

Verse 1

We meet like two passing shadows

Briefly crossing borrowed light

Never asking for confessions

Never staying past the night

But something in the quiet

Feels familiar when you're near

Like neither one must fill the silence

Like neither one is something to fear

I know desire has its hunger

I know tenderness can take

So I won't turn a passing closeness

Into something yours to save

Pre-Chorus

You have never tried to wound me

I would never mean you harm

In the little time we're given

Every warning is disarmed

Chorus

Beautiful creature

Every meeting—chartreuse

A flash of color in the darkness

For a moment, a short truce

Beautiful creature

No request and no appeal

May the world regard you gently

May it never make you kneel

Verse 2

Sometimes I return to all the songs

You gathered in one place

Listening for the things you notice

Not for secrets, not a trace

I don't pretend they are your answers

Or a map beneath your skin

I just wonder which words found you

And what made you let them in

Maybe somewhere in the rhythm

There's a language I could learn

Not to claim I understand you

Only how to take my turn

Pre-Chorus

You have never tried to save me

I would never ask you to

I would carry every burden

Before I laid its weight on you

Chorus

Beautiful creature

Every meeting—chartreuse

A flash of color in the darkness

For a moment, a short truce

Beautiful creature

No request and no appeal

May the world regard you gently

May it never make you kneel

Bridge

Is it mercy if I vanish

Before you ever choose to stay?

Is it kindness to decide for you

What you should or shouldn't give away?

Maybe I am not protecting you

Maybe fear has learned to care

Maybe saying "you deserve better"

Is another way I disappear

So I listen to your music

For the spaces between sound

Knowing I may never find you there

But grateful for what I found

Final Chorus

Beautiful creature

Every meeting—chartreuse

One bright color through the darkness

One impossible short truce

Beautiful creature

Come as close as you choose to feel

I will meet you where you're standing

I will never make you kneel

No, I'll meet you where you're standing

With my empty hands revealed

I may tremble when I reach you

But I'll never

make you kneel

Outro

(Chartreuse.)

(A short truce.)

(Then you're gone.)