Stand Alone Anyway

[Verse 1]
I gave you the summer
All the soft parts of my name
You packed just your silence
Left your sweater, took my flame
I folded on the floorboards
Hands shaking like old glass
Watched the door stay empty
As the years crawled past
[Chorus]
You were my once-in-a-lifetime, baby
I never was that for you
I fell into a grave I’d made of
Every almost, every “soon”
I loved you then
I love you now
It doesn’t make me break somehow
I stand firm, I stand strong
I stand alone
(stand alone anyway)
[Verse 2]
Lived in a low room
Curtains closed at noon
Friends knocking, phone buzzing
I let it all bruise
Dug through every memory
Like a miner out of air
Found a little light in me
You had never put there
[Chorus]
You were my once-in-a-lifetime, baby
I never was that for you
I fell into a grave I’d made of
Every almost, every “soon”
I loved you then
I love you now
It doesn’t make me crawl back down
I stand firm, I stand strong
I stand alone
(stand alone anyway)
[Bridge]
If you turned up at my doorway
With your old half-hearted smile
I would feel my ribcage shudder
But I’d only stay a while
You’re still written in my story
Ink that never fully dries
But I’ve learned to hold that heartbreak
Like a weight that makes me rise
[Chorus]
You were my once-in-a-lifetime, baby
I never was that for you
I walked out of the grave I’d made and
Left the flowers there for you
I loved you then
I love you still
But it’s my heart, it’s my will
I stand firm, I stand strong
I stand alone
(stand alone, stand alone)
I stand firm, I stand strong
I stand alone
(and I still love, I still love)

Moody alt-pop ballad with female vocals; intimate piano and distant pads in the verses, low pulsing bass under a spacious beat in the chorus. Vocal starts close-mic and fragile, then grows into a soaring, gritty belt by the final hook. Subtle reverse swells and filtered drum builds deepen the dark-to-empowered arc, with layered harmonies on the last chorus for catharsis., strong, deep