Euphoria

(Slow upright bass. Brushed drums. Muted trumpet crying in the back.)

Everything you said about me

Yeah… it hurts in reverse.

Funny how silence sings louder

When the room knows the truth first.

Superpowers fade to gray

I watch the glow dissolve in smoke,

A silver-screen smile shakes a little

Paranoia in every joke.

You move reckless, chasing mirrors,

Every move tastes secondhand,

I study angles, read the shadows,

You’re a gamble, I’m the plan.

You tell stories for acceptance,

Dress them up in borrowed skin,

I make sparks that wake the city,

You make lullabies for them.

(Piano walk-down)

I know the game you love to play,

Habitual, professional sleight,

So don’t bend my name in fiction

And I won’t bend yours in light.

Shoo…

Let the echoes leave the room.

Shoo…

Let the rumors miss their cue.

(Trumpet scat: ba-doo-bee, ba-doo-bee)

I stay low where the air is thin,

Remote island, mind at ease,

I reap the seeds I planted early,

Let the harvest speak for me.

Money talks in old portraits,

History framed on the wall,

Everybody plays the villain

Till the curtain starts to fall.

You ever stare your rival down

With a smile that doesn’t blink?

Ever pay the cost of pride

And still rise before you sink?

I’ve stumbled, yeah, I’ve learned,

Still walked out clean and upright,

Funny how the loudest sermons

Whisper prayers online at night.

Legacy is heavy luggage,

Some inherit, some pretend,

Truth shakes tables when it enters,

And I don’t need to recommend.

(Drum break — soft but sharp)

This ain’t numbers, charts, or rankings,

Ain’t a circus, ain’t a crown,

It’s just love that turns to friction

When the masks come crashing down.

I hate the way you sell a myth,

I hate the way you play it tough,

I love the songs when melodies lead,

Not the costume of a bluff.

“We” is louder than just “me,”

Hear the culture clear its throat,

How many tales you gotta spin

Before the thread begins to choke?

I don’t call around for dirt,

I got mornings I attend,

Raising something real and breathing,

Teaching how to stand and bend.

Morals, patience, quiet strength,

Things that never trend online,

Truth spoken slow in lowercase,

That’s the discipline of mine.

(Bass solo — walking, confident)

Is this man or is this image?

Still waiting for the proof.

Confidence don’t shout or flex,

It just sits there in the truth.

Cease and letters, noise and panic,

Funny what you choose to fight,

Some records age like old wine,

Some dissolve by morning light.

I don’t battle ghosts or echoes,

I don’t chase what isn’t there,

Imitation studies violence,

But it can’t inherit flair.

Don’t speak names you shouldn’t touch,

Lines get deep when crossed in haste,

I’m eating peace with fried rice calm,

You still hungry for the taste.

(Band drops to near silence)

If you push it, I’ll push further,

That’s a road you shouldn’t choose.

We don’t wanna hear the noise no more—

Just let the groove refuse.

Stop.

(Last piano chord hangs. Glass clinks. Applause.)