Gymnopedie No2

step outside, let the cold do its thing

lighter clicks, that small familiar sting

breath and smoke, can't tell 'em apart no more

winter got a way of settling the score

street lights bleed through the frosted glass

every face I knew feels like a photograph

faded at the edges, overexposed

memories like embers — warm until they're cold

the city hums low underneath the frost

I keep walking like I'm searching for what's lost

coat pulled tight against the hollow wind

revisiting every place that I have been

the corner store still got the same damn light

fluorescent buzz, same cold, same night

I exhale slow and watch it fade to grey

some things leave a shape before they drift away

smoke rising slow in the december air

replaying scenes like I could still be there

the piano keeps falling like the first snow falls

I'm just a ghost between these four walls

old voicemails I never had the heart to clear

I press play just to keep the voice somewhere near

the static hiss is almost like a room

where everyone I lost is still in bloom

trace the crack along the kitchen wall

remember painting that the summer y'all

laughed until the sun was barely there

now I carry it all in the winter air

pull the blanket of the past around my shoulders

every winter makes the distance feel colder

old mixtape crackling through a blown-out speaker

the melody's the same but the feeling's weaker

or maybe I just know too much now

grown enough to see the seams and the rough

still I rewind it, still I press play

chasing the warmth of a long-gone day

maybe memory's just smoke —

it takes a shape, then lets you go

dissipates but leaves the scent behind

that's the only kind of peace I find