Still Water

Feel: Sparse piano and acoustic guitar open the song. Strings enter at the bridge. A gospel choir breathes in underneath the final chorus — felt more than heard at first, then fully present.
Vocal approach: Two voices. The sisters. They sing separately for most of the song — then together for the final chorus. 
Influences: The Civil Wars, Audrey Assad, traditional Filipino kundiman melancholy
INTRO (piano, single notes)
(hummed melody)
Lyrics:
VERSE 1 (Sister 1 — solo, quiet)
We crossed the ocean with our suitcases and hope
Mama’s name like a lantern in the dark
We were daughters looking for a place to finally belong
But the door was open and the house was cold
She had built another life before we could arrive
Set another table, shared another name
And we learned to love her from a careful distance
Like you love a candle through a windowpane
PRE-CHORUS
Lord, I don’t know how to hold
What I never had the chance to know
How do you grieve a love that never came?
How do you let go and still remain?
CHORUS (both sisters, first time together)
She is still our mother
Even now, even here
In this room where the machines
Are breathing what she cannot breathe
We are still her daughters
Even with our wounds and years
God, let mercy meet us
In the place we’re standing now
Still water, still water
Carry us somehow
VERSE 2 (Sister 2 — solo)
I used to write the letters that I never sent
Full of questions, full of things I couldn’t say
Did you ever wonder if we needed you to stay?
Did you know we watched the door for you each day?
Now the tables have been turned so quietly
And it’s us who hold the choice you never gave
I forgive you not because it doesn’t cost me
But because I won’t let bitterness be my grave
PRE-CHORUS (both sisters)
Lord, we don’t know how to hold
What we never had the chance to know
How do you grieve a love that never came?
How do you let go and still remain?
CHORUS
She is still our mother
Even now, even here
In this room where the machines
Are breathing what she cannot breathe
We are still her daughters
Even with our wounds and years
God, let mercy meet us
In the place we’re standing now
Still water, still water
Carry us somehow
BRIDGE (strings rise, one voice, then both — the most honest moment)
We are saints in training
Waiting to heal
We are two women
Learning how to kneel
At the altar of something
We don’t understand
Placing what we’re holding
Into better hands
She was broken, we were broken
And only grace can bridge that span
So we release her, God, we release her
Back into Your hands
(pause — silence — one breath)
FINAL CHORUS (full voices, choir underneath, strings swelling — E major now)
She was still our mother
Even then, even there
Even when the love she gave us
Was not more than she could bear
We are still her daughters

We were more than what she knew
And the God who sees the sparrow
Sees this room and sees us too
Still water, still water
You have always led us here
Still water, still water
Even now — especially here

Cinematic Filipino-American folk / gospel soul
58 BPM
Key: E minor → resolves to E major in the final chorus