Prompt / Lyrics
Intro (Single bell tone.) She didn’t mean to hand me this. She just didn’t know she was carrying it. ⸻ Verse 1 It came wrapped in silence the way inherited things do. No ceremony. No explanation. Just — here. My mother’s hands shook when she held me. Not because love failed — but because love had never learned how to be steady. She learned from a woman whose hands also shook. Who learned from a woman before her whose name I don’t know — but whose mark I wore before I knew what wearing meant. ⸻ Pre-Chorus It wasn’t cruelty that traveled down the line. It was survival. Women broken before anyone told them they deserved to be whole. Handing daughters what they survived and never healed. ⸻ Chorus Tarnished inheritance passed through shaking hands. What was gold before it cracked. Every mother in my line loved the best she knew. Every daughter paid the price of what her mother never worked through. This is not blame. This is not shame. This is naming what was handed to me before I knew I could put it down. ⸻ Verse 2 My mother was drowning. Drowning women can’t pull anyone to shore. They reach with shaking hands and hope something holds. At the end, when the cancer took what strength remained — she wrote it down. I’m sorry I failed you. She saw it. She named it. That took everything she had left. ⸻ Pre-Chorus I carried it before I knew its weight. I almost passed it before I saw its shape. The wilderness cracked me open wide enough to see the pattern — and what it would cost every daughter after me if I didn’t put it down. ⸻ Chorus Tarnished inheritance passed through shaking hands. What was gold underneath the damage. Every mother did her best. Every daughter bore the rest. This is the moment the line changes. This is the moment I put it down. ⸻ Bridge (To the women in the line.) You were not villains. You were wounded. You survived what you were never taught to heal. I carry no anger. Only grief — for all of us. Women who deserved to be whole and never learned how. Until now. Until me. ⸻ Final Chorus Polished inheritance handed forward with steady hands. What was always gold beneath the tarnish. From this moment on every daughter in my line receives what should have always been — Love that knows how to stay steady. This is not blame. This is not shame. This is the sound of a loop closing clean. It ends here. It ends with me. ⸻ Outro (Bell tone returns. Clear now.) I see you. Every woman in my line. I am handing forward what you meant to give — Love. Clean. Whole.
Tags
Dark cinematic folk, slow cello-led, light piano, drums at bridge, building orchestral swell, spoken word vocal ancient
Duration
6:12
Instrumental
No
Created
3/1/2026