[VERSE 1]
(Heavy blues feel — slow, deliberate, gritty. Sparse instrumentation. Guitar low and dusty.)
This dusty old road
Done colored my boots
Gave me scars on my back
Is how I paid my dues
Now I’m the type of man
That can carry these marks
It toughened these hands
And softened my heart
[VERSE 2]
(Blues builds slightly — more movement, still weighted.)
With each twist and bend
Traced mountains and streams
To where trees start to blend
Never finding what it means
But I found how to mend
The broken worn bridges
Making enemies and friends
In the valleys and ridges
[CHORUS]
(still bluesy, sounds like exhaustion)
These bones ache like a morning
After years of restless dreams
A man still in the doorway
Between what was and what it means
[VERSE 3]
(blues beginning to open, fog lifting, something tender entering the sound)
The road stopped feeling lonely
Somewhere I can’t place
Like the dream was showing
What I couldn’t see awake
Still I stood there in the morning
With the night on my skin
Not sure where I was walking
Not even sure where I been
[CHORUS]
(Starts to breathe. Sounds like wonder beginning.)
These bones ache like a morning
After years of restless dreams
A man still in the doorway
Between what was and what it means
[VERSE 4]
(Instrumentation swells then pulls back for the last two lines — almost bare.)
The valleys turned to table
The ridges soft with light
I bedded down by a stream
And stayed for a while
The trees were just the trees again
The sky was just the sky
But something in the clouds
Finally caught my eye
[CHORUS — FINAL]
(The ache is still there but it’s sacred now.)
These bones feel like a morning
Finally waking from its sleep
A man stepping through the doorway
Between what was and what it means
Nexus
