[Voice 1: Renee, female, raw breathy vocals, human imperfection, Eddy Luna meets AlunaGeorge]
[Voice 2: Mick, male, Eddie Vedder]
[VERSE 1 — Renee, low and inward]
I used to track every place you hurt me
Keep the tally like it meant something
Like if I counted all the edges
I could build a case for leaving
But the case kept pointing inward
Every wound a window
Every place you scraped against me
Something I had hidden
Finally
Coming to the surface
[VERSE 2 — Mick, entering under her last lines]
I used to armor every tender place
Call it strength, call it knowing myself
But you found every gap without even trying
Not to hurt me —
Just by being
That close
I didn’t know how much I was carrying
Until you stood beside me
And I felt the weight
By contrast
[PRE-CHORUS — alternating, nearly overlapping]
[Renee] Every time you pushed me away
[Mick] Every time you tried to go
[Renee] You were pushing me toward something
[Mick] I was following what I didn’t know
[Renee] We kept calling it conflict
[Mick] We kept calling it pain
[Mick and Renee] But the Master was already
Calling it
by another name
[CHORUS] [Mick and Renee, circular melody, almost chant]
Sand me smooth beloved
I can take it now
I used to call the friction suffering
Now I call it the hand of God
Moving through you
Moving through me
Sand me smooth
Until there’s nothing left
To guard
[VERSE 3] [Mick]
We were never the gardeners here
I know that now
We were always the garden
Being tended by hands
We couldn’t see
Every season we thought was failure
Was just preparation
Every winter we called abandonment
Was the ground
Going deep
Getting ready
[VERSE 4] [Renee]
The Master planted this
In another life
I’m sure of it
The way I’m sure of you
The way I’m sure of morning
He has been patient
In a way I am still learning
He has been watching this
The way you watch a fire
Knowing exactly
When it’s ready
[PRE-CHORUS] [Mick and Renee]
We kept calling it breaking
We kept calling it loss
But something in us knew
Even then
Even when it cost us most
That we were being shaped
Not shattered
Shaped
[CHORUS]
[BRIDGE]
[Renee] I stopped trying to protect myself from you
Not because I stopped mattering to myself
But because I finally understood
That what you were touching
Wasn’t me —
It was the stone around me
[Mick] And I stopped trying to be
Someone you wouldn’t have to
Sand against
Because the sanding
Was never about my failure
It was about
What we were making
Together
[Mick and Renee]
Something that could only be made
This way
Through this
Between us
[FINAL CHORUS — full, unhurried, the melody now deeply settled]
Sand me smooth beloved
I can take it now
I used to call the friction suffering
Now I call it the hand of God
Moving through you
Moving through me
Sand me smooth
Until there’s nothing left
To guard
[OUTRO] [Renee]
We were never the gardeners
We were always
the garden
AlchemistEthereal252
