Backstage Blues

Barroom blues, musicians’ stories and a view from behind the curtain.

Matchbook Gospel

Track 1 of 12

Lyrics

You wore your grace like borrowed clothes

Beautiful, but never quite your own

Every smile arrived half-dressed

Like it had learned to stand alone

I held the silence with both hands

Afraid one word might make you fall

Some hearts don’t slam a heavy door

They fade like shadows on the wall

And I could feel the tremor there

Beneath your careful calm

Like a house still keeps the thunder

Long after it has gone

Wounds that never show

Hide beneath the light

They stir when the room goes empty

And breathe in the middle of the night

I wasn’t there to break you

I was there when truth came through

Wounds that never show

Still decide what love can do

You spoke of trust like distant towns

Places you might reach someday

But your hands knew every exit first

Before your lips could ask me to stay

Some people bury hurt in noise

Some in work, some in a smile

And some go cold in tender moments

’Cause warmth feels dangerous after a while

I never asked to own your pain

Or wear what time put through

I only saw the smoke still rise

From fires that once burned through

Wounds that never show

Hide beneath the light

They stir when the room goes empty

And breathe in the middle of the night

I wasn’t there to break you

I was there when truth came through

Wounds that never show

Still decide what love can do

So if you vanish with the dawn

I won’t call your name a lie

Some scars don’t come from cruelty

Some are born from just surviving life

Wounds that never show

Live below the skin

They don’t shout, they just keep moving

When the quiet settles in

I never came to save you

Only to stand where you stood

Wounds that never show

Still remember what they could

And if one day you turn around

And let the daylight in

I’ll be somewhere in that silence

Where your healing can begin

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