Verse 1
Back in the schoolyard dust, under that old oak shade
Your laugh cut through the recess noise like sunlight through a blade
Pigtails and freckles, grace in every careless step
I didn't know forever yet, but I swore I'd never forget
Pre-Chorus
Heart too small to hold the weight
Of a promise I never spoke
Just watched you glow, untouchable
While the world stayed ordinary smoke
Chorus
And the echoes keep calling your name through the years
Soft as the wind through the fence at sixteen
I carried that light like a lantern in rain
Never knowing it was burning my skin
Till the flame turned to ash in my hands
Verse 2
Three decades of highways, army boots, and late-night drives
Your face in the rearview, fading but never quite gone from my eyes
I built you a throne out of daydreams and time
Polished it bright while my own life slipped by
Bridge
Then the screen lit up one quiet night
Same smile, same tilt of the head
But the pedestal cracked when your words hit the light
And the girl I'd worshipped was already wed
Chorus
Now the echoes are quieter, just whispers in dust
No more chasing that ghost through the rust
I finally see what I held all along
Was a beautiful lie I sang in my song
And the silence that follows feels strangely like love
Outro
(soft, fading banjo pluck over lingering synth pad)
So I walk this road empty-handed now
The halo's gone, but the dawn's breaking through
And maybe that's the sweetest sound of all
Letting the dream girl go... letting me go too