Spectral Edges

[Intro] Silent hallways breathe my old name, a whisper in the dust I drift through rooms that know my shadow, but I’m not part of us A quiet metronome of footsteps times the ache that won’t unlock I’m here, then not, a click between the lines of talk [Verse 1] I watch the kettle hum its faithful tune, yet I am not its steam Familiar doors tilt, knowing I will stay unseen The sofa holds my outline, a faded script I once wore bold I read the margins of the wallpaper where memories grow cold [Pre-Chorus] Presence as punctuation, asterisks in the air I sip the air like tea I didn’t drink, and pretend I’m still there [Chorus] I am the soft misfit in the frame of your day The ghost at the edge of laughter, listening to what you say An echo with no echo returning, a gaze that never lands Longing nods to the spaces between your hands [Verse 2] I follow your footsteps through rooms I’ve memorized by feel A chorus of chairs and clocks applauding with a steel You speak to me in cursive tones that always fade to gray As if I paused the scene to watch the words slip away [Pre-Chorus] Presence as punctuation, asterisks in the air I sip the air like tea I didn’t drink, and pretend I’m still there [Chorus] I am the soft misfit in the frame of your day The ghost at the edge of laughter, listening to what you say An echo with no echo returning, a gaze that never lands Longing nods to the spaces between your hands [Bridge] If memory were a window, I’d lean to trace the frost Seeing you from the outside where the doors forgot we crossed I’m the clause that never closes, the weather of a quiet rue Speaking in half-breaths of dusk, to remind me I once knew you [Chorus] I am the soft misfit in the frame of your day The ghost at the edge of laughter, listening to what you say An echo with no echo returning, a gaze that never lands Longing nods to the spaces between your hands [Outro] So I linger where presence glances, a seam beneath your sight A patient curtain in the theater of your life, fading into night I stay, I drift, I watch—absent yet insistently near A listening, living shadow offering one more quiet year