Empty Chair, Heavy Heart

[Verse 1]
There’s an empty chair
At the end of the table
I still turn my head
Like you’re gonna walk in
We were talking trash
Laughing loud in the kitchen
Now it’s quiet as a church
Where your voice has been
[Chorus]
My heart is broken
I say it again
Like it might wake you up if I just say when
I’m searching rooms
I’m searching days
For the way you used to say my name
And I’m so tired
Barely holding on
Reaching for a hand that’s already gone
I wanna call
But there’s only air
So I talk to your empty chair
[Verse 2]
I replay that joke
You could barely get through it
Tears in your eyes
From your own dumb line
Now my phone lights up
But it’s never your number
And the silence rings
On the other side
[Chorus]
My heart is broken
I say it again
Like it might wake you up if I just say when
I’m searching rooms
I’m searching days
For the way you used to say my name
And I’m so tired
Barely holding on
Reaching for a hand that’s already gone
I wanna call
But there’s only air
So I talk to your empty chair
[Bridge]
If love is a thread
Yours is sewn in my seams
You’re there in my coffee cup
In the cracks of my dreams
I can’t hear your answer
But I know what you’d say
“Rest for a while
Then live anyway”
[Chorus]
My heart is broken
I say it again
But I feel you here in the soft refrain
I’m searching still
Through all this ache
For the pieces of you I get to take
And I’m so tired
But I’ll carry on
Every story you started lives in these songs
Can’t hear your laugh
But I know you’re there
When I sing to the empty chair

folk, Intimate acoustic folk ballad with male vocals, close-miked guitar and soft fingerpicking. First verse sparse and fragile; subtle upright bass and brushed percussion bloom in the first chorus. Gentle harmony doubles key phrases, with a small string pad lifting the bridge. Overall arc from quiet heartbreak to a weary, searching acceptance, then back to a whisper-soft outro., acoustic