Ashes On My Tongue

[Intro – slow piano loop + vinyl crackle]
There’s smoke in my mouth,
but no fire left.
Every word I wanted to say
burned out before it touched the air.

[Verse 1 – spoken/sung]
I kept your name behind my teeth,
like a secret I wasn’t brave enough to swallow.
Now it tastes like rust and rain.
I talk to the ceiling,
it never interrupts—
just listens like an old friend
who’s heard this story before.
The truth gets quieter
each time I tell it.

[Pre-Chorus – soft harmony layers]
There’s a storm beneath my tongue,
but thunder’s got nowhere to go.
I chew on memories
’til the flavor’s gone.

[Chorus – slow groove drops]
I got ashes on my tongue
from the words I never said.
They still glow when I breathe,
tiny fires in my head.
If silence is a weapon,
then I’m bleeding from my grin.
I keep tasting every goodbye
that never made it out my skin.

[Verse 2 – rap-poetry flow over bassline]
I wrote you letters I never sent,
folded them into smoke.
Watched them vanish above the bed—
proof that I still choke.
The mirror hums your favorite tune,
a cracked reflection choir.
I’m fluent in pretending fine,
but my throat’s still wired with fire.
I spit verses in my sleep,
but wake up hoarse with doubt.
Guess confession’s easy to dream
and harder to live out.

[Bridge – half-sung, trumpet echo]
Maybe love’s not lost,
it’s just unspoken.
Maybe hearts don’t break,
they open.
I keep finding pieces of peace
in the noise between breaths.
The quiet hurts,
but it’s honest.

[Chorus – reprise with sax and drum build]
Ashes on my tongue,
ghosts under my skin.
Every “sorry” I never said
is still burning from within.
I tried to turn pain into rhythm,
but the beat keeps running late—
like my heart,
like my faith,
like the words you wouldn’t wait for.

[Breakdown – spoken over vinyl static]
I don’t want revenge.
I just want the silence to mean something.
All these songs I keep writing—
they’re just smoke signals
you’ll never see.

[Final Chorus – soft fade]
Ashes on my tongue,
nothing left to prove.
If love was a language,
I forgot how to move.
So I’ll let the fire die quietly,
and breathe in what remains—
a mouth full of ghosts,
and a voice that still believes.

[Outro – trumpet solo + tape fade]

Male vocal, lo-fi jazz-hop soul with trumpet and soft beat, emotional, cinematic, smoky late-night mood