Night hums low beneath the streetlights

Headlights stretch into the dark.

I traded silence for motion

My pockets still warm

Sleeping in borrowed moments

Trying to feel something in form

Light leaks through the curtains

Time drips slow on the wall

I keep my doubts in the margins

Pretend I do not feel

The fall

Call it self-preservation

My phone lights up like a warning

But I let it fade

To blue

Every thought keeps circling

Back to something

I never knew

You can take the weight

Off my shoulders

Take the echoes I keep inside

Take the names I never told you

Take the fear I learned

To hide

Call it self-preservation

It all feels heavy

But I am still standing

It all feels heavy

I am breathing tonight

Watched the ceiling breathe shadows

Static dancing in my head

Memories blur at

The edges

Like something I almost said

Ashtray moons on the dresser

Smoke learns how to disappear

Every dream feels

Unfinished

But I still keep you near

I trace your face in the window

Every passing reflection

I learned how to fall

Without flying

Call it self-preservation

You can take the weight off my shoulders

Take the echoes I keep inside

Take the names I never told you

Take the fear I learned

To hide

Call it self-preservation

It all feels heavy

But I am still standing

It all feels heavy

And I am breathing

Tonight

I get close to the edge of thinking

Like the road might run out of light

But something pulls me back inward

Says stay

Not tonight

Call it self-preservation

You can take the weight off

My shoulders

Take the past I keep replaying

Take the doubts that pull me under

Leave the part that keeps me staying

It all feels heavy

But I'm still here

It all feels heavy

The future feels near

Road keeps rolling

Breath stays slow

Fading into the night glow

Call it self-preservation