Borrowed Lungs (Version 2)

Intro

(yeah)

(look)

Five in the morning, radiator clank

Steam on the glass, draw the blinds back

Verse

Radiator knocking like a hammer on zinc

Left the kettle on the iron just to watch the metal steam

Five winters in a jacket that was worn paper thin

Walking hard against the crosswind with the chin tucked in

Autopilot through the turnstile, metro card swipe

Kept the ledger in my skull just to calibrate the hype

Wasn't hurting, wasn't healing, had the dial turned low

Like a pilot light flickering beneath the snow

Used to measure out the oxygen like rationed coin

Never trusting any hinge or a rusted joint

Just a muscle with a cadence, twenty miles of stride

Locking every single window from the inside

Now the frost starts sweating on the windowsill pane

Chest aches when I take in the sudden sting of rain

That's the price of admission when the feeling starts

Heavy ribs making room for a beating heart

Chorus

Pulling cold wind through borrowed lungs (lungs)

Heavy iron on the roof of my tongue (tongue)

Learned to survive with the fire turned down

Now the heat's coming back to this hollow town

Yeah we breathe till the ribcage hums (hums)

Taking life in on borrowed lungs

Verse

Sun slant sideways, four-forty-five

Watch the dust in the beam where the shadows dive

Felt my collarbone drop, let the tension release

First afternoon I noticed any kind of breeze

Ain't a victory march, it's a slow thaw out

Trading out the steady silence for a little doubt

Carried armor for so long that it turned to lead

Waking up with the pulse knocking in my head

Coffee grounds in the filter, water boiling black

Learning how to walk forward without looking back

Every tendon kept the score of the miles I ran

Uncurling the fingers of a white-knuckled hand

Hear the bassline vibrating through the floorboard grain

Blood warm in the vessel like a moving train

Not running for the exit, not climbing the wall

Just standing in the room and accepting it all

Chorus

Pulling cold wind through borrowed lungs (lungs)

Heavy iron on the roof of my tongue (tongue)

Learned to survive with the fire turned down

Now the heat's coming back to this hollow town

Yeah we breathe till the ribcage hums (hums)

Taking life in on borrowed lungs

Bridge

Held the breath so long I forgot to exhale

Thought the numbness was peace till the colors turned pale

Now the draft hits the throat like a bell in the chest

Took a decade of surviving just to learn to rest

Crack the latch on the frame, let the current blow in

Feel the weather taking root underneath the skin

Outro

Ribs expand (expand)

Feet flat on the floor

Ain't holding back the breath no more

Cold air in

Let the engine run

Living on borrowed lungs