Anti-Hero (remix)

I’m the echo you keep in the hallway
Polished and guilty, reflecting your midnight
Every flaw you hand me I carry like crystal—
I don’t break, I just splinter the light

You call yourself the problem
I’m the answer you swallow too fast
While you rehearse your exit in dreams
I stand here holding the glass

You wake screaming—, I wake building
I stitch the dawn out of threadbare hope
Fold your tremor into paper cranes
Let them fly from the envelope

Yes, the sun burns, but look
The mirror never flinched at your blaze
I keep the record of every wince
Then polish it into praise

You fear the daughter-in-law with the will
I fear the silence after the will is read
So I hum a counter-chorus
May the dead stay loudly alive instead

I’m the shoulder you keep at a distance
The friend who still saves you a seat
The version of you that forgives in advance
The anti-hero’s obsolete

So scream if you must—
I’ll pocket the sound like a spark
Because someone must root for the ashes
Until they remember the hearth in the dark