Scars in Soft Focus

Verse

Fourth booth camera at Dee's shop, flash on a timer,

Curl of the paper leaving the slot, corners crimper.

Fifteen and stitched, cheek open like an envelope,

He said hold still for the shutter, don't smile, just cope.

Chemical bath in a tray by the mirror,

Watched myself surface slow, edges getting clearer.

Light leak bled orange where the cut used to sting,

Made it look like sunset instead of everything.

Taped it by the register next to Marcus and Wayne,

Same wall, different years, same kind of pain.

Nobody asked why the film came back that way,

We just called it character, kept the receipt of the day.

Pre-Chorus

Tell me why the picture heals what the mirror won't,

Tell me if the softness means it happened or it don't.

Chorus

Scars in soft focus, still they're scars underneath,

Blur don't erase what the flash couldn't keep.

I carry the picture, I carry the proof,

Scars in soft focus, but I know the truth.

Verse

Ten years gone, found the box behind the water heater,

Wayne's in three pictures, now he's only in two, either

Way I flip through, his laugh caught mid-frame,

Same shop closed down, Dee moved, kept his name

On a sign in storage like nobody's coming back.

I'm coming back with cash he never had to ask.

Paid the light bill once when his own kid was sick,

Never made the wall, never made the click.

Some loyalty don't develop, don't need a lens,

Some receipts just live in what a man defends.

Pre-Chorus

Tell me why the picture heals what the mirror won't,

Tell me if the softness means it happened or it don't.

Chorus

Scars in soft focus, still they're scars underneath,

Blur don't erase what the flash couldn't keep.

I carry the picture, I carry the proof,

Scars in soft focus, but I know the truth.

Bridge

Truth is I asked Dee to touch mine up, make it kind,

Told the story softer than it played out at the time.

But the cheek still pulls when the weather turns cold,

Some things a photo can't retouch or hold.

I stopped needing the picture to prove what's real,

The proof was always under the skin, in the way I feel.

Chorus

Scars in soft focus, still they're scars underneath,

Blur don't erase what the flash couldn't keep.

I carry the picture, I carry the proof,

Scars in soft focus, but I know the truth.