Regrets of an Old Man

Lyrics

[Testimony I] I didn’t come to win you over / Didn’t bring receipts or flags — I brought a back full of quiet damage / You don’t heal from, you drag They call survival “attitude” — When it’s bone-deep fact / I don’t raise my voice for truth / It already clawed its way back — (hold) [Record] No myth / no lesson / no redemption arc — Just a body that remembers the dark — (silence) [Statement I] I don’t need you to believe me — I lived it either way / These lines aren’t for your comfort / They’re where the lightning stayed No firework for the skyline — Just water jumping back If you heard it — good / If not — I still wear it on my back — (two beats) [Testimony II] They want pain shaped cinematic / They want meaning tied in bows — But some things only leave evidence in the way a man stands slow I don’t flinch when it gets quiet / I don’t blink when the room turns cold — That’s not courage — that’s conditioning / That’s what makes it through / not bold — (hold, exhale) [Record] You clap for stories that end clean — Mine kept going in between — (silence) [Statement II] I don’t need you to feel it / I already paid — Every scar’s a timestamp / Every breath stayed No boom meant for history / No name attached — Just truth landing heavy where it splashed — (full stop) [Cross-Examination] If this sounds like mockery — That’s projection / not design I’m not laughing at the wound — I’m laughing that I survived You wanted spectacle — I brought fact You wanted heaven — I brought back — (lights drop) [Exhibit A] Lights off. Say nothing. No moral. No ask. I told you what happened. — (long silence) The rest is on your back.