IWWY 2

Lyrics

[MALE VOCAL ONLY — stripped back again] Can I tell you something? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Always. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I'm tired. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I know. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Not tired of you. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I know that too. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I'm tired of standing guard. Tired of checking every doorway. Tired of deciding how much of us is safe today. Tired of being the first thing everybody sees and knowing that's where most of them stop. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Then rest. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] What happens to me? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Nothing has to happen to you. You don't have to disappear for me to live. You don't have to lose your history because I'm finally using my name. You don't have to become the enemy just because you were the armor. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I don't know who I am if I'm not protecting you. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Then maybe that's the next thing we learn. Not who you have to be. Who you get to be when you don't have to stand in front of me. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] And if they're not ready? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] They can adjust. [MALE VOCAL ONLY — tiny laugh] You always were stubborn. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] We always were. [Bridge — alternating, increasingly close together] [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I carried the fear [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I carried the knowing [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I carried the name they gave us [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I carried the one that was mine [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I learned how to survive their world [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I kept somewhere inside it that still felt like home [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought I was keeping you alive [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] We kept each other alive [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought I was your prison [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] You were the walls when we needed walls [MALE VOCAL ONLY] And now? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Now we need a door. [Instrumental breath] [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Are you afraid? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Yes. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Me too. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Fear can come. It just doesn't get to choose where we live anymore. [Final Chorus — BOTH VOCALS TOGETHER; no longer call-and-response] [BOTH VOCALS TOGETHER] We were here the whole time through every room through every name through every year we thought survival and living were the same We were here the whole time one carrying the outside one keeping home within we were never two different lives just one life trying to fit inside its skin We don't have to erase the road we don't have to hate where we've been we can thank what kept us living without asking it to lead again We were here the whole time and tomorrow knows our name there is no one left to become and nothing left we have to prove to make us real [Outro — MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought I was carrying you. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] You were. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I didn't know you were carrying me too. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I was. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] So what happens now? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] We live. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Here? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Here. [BOTH VOCALS TOGETHER — very quietly] Leave the light on. We're staying.