Black Water Applause

Song: “Black Water Applause”

Verse 1

I learned to smile from broken doors

From the way they creak when they don’t forgive

City breath on my collarbone

Like smoke that never learned to live

Your voice came like a warning sign

Painted over, still bleeding truth

I held it up to my own heart

Watched it fail the proof

Chorus

You clap for me like I’m drowning—

Like black water’s something sweet

I keep reaching for the surface

But the surface disappears beneath my feet

If you’re saving me, save it quietly

Let the damage stay unnamed

’Cause I’m turning into echo

And the echo’s all I became

Verse 2

Night drips slow from every wire

Every shadow wears your face

I count the cracks in bedroom light

Like numbers trying to erase

I keep my sins in open drawers

Like kindness I can’t return

And every “I’m okay” I say

Gets swallowed down and burned

Chorus

You clap for me like I’m drowning—

Like black water’s something sweet

I keep reaching for the surface

But the surface disappears beneath my feet

If you’re saving me, save it quietly

Let the damage stay unnamed

’Cause I’m turning into echo

And the echo’s all I became

Bridge

Maybe I’m the lesson you hate

Maybe I’m the lesson you chose

Either way I’m stuck to the ceiling

Watching the light lose its hope

I can hear your love in footsteps

Soft as theft behind my back

And when you say my name, it sounds like

Something sharp I can’t undo intact

Final Chorus

You clap for me like I’m drowning—

Like black water’s something sweet

I stop asking for a lifeline

When the lifeline looks like teeth

If you’re leaving, leave it quietly

Don’t make a scene out of pain

’Cause I’m turning into weather

And the weather doesn’t change

Outro

Black water applause…

Black water applause…

Don’t touch me—

I’m already gone in the sound you called “home”