AFTER LAST CALL

There’s a chair by the window nobody takes

Still got a name carved in the side

Neon hums like it’s tired of staying awake

Same old clock, different time

The bartender’s older, so am I

We don’t talk much anymore

He just nods when I sit down to play

Like he’s heard these chords before

I used to watch the world from this bench

Thinking someday I’d move on

Funny how the song keeps you still

Long after the crowd is gone

Sing me the ones that don’t get old

The half-truths, the almost-theres

I played these keys to lose myself

Now I play to remember who was here

There was a girl who swore she’d leave this town

Said love was a temporary thing

There was a man who drank to quiet his doubts

He never liked when I’d sing

Some of them made it, some just stayed

Some disappeared between the lines

Funny how I know their stories better now

That I’ve lived a few of mine

I thought the stage was somewhere else

Under brighter, borrowed lights

Didn’t know this room was teaching me

How to sit with my own life

Sing me the ones that don’t get old

The long nights and the quiet wins

I used to play to hear myself

Now I play so they come back in

Fame came loud, left soft

Didn’t change this sound

A thousand rooms, a million faces

But this one wrote me down

Sing me the ones that don’t get old

The truth you only say at night

I stayed long enough to be a song

Someone hums when the bar goes quiet

So close the tab, leave the light

I’ll finish this one, then I’m gone

If tomorrow comes, I’ll be right here

If it doesn’t—

I already sang my song