The Girl Who Never Left

Verse 1
Mown grass in summer, warm wind in the lane,
Apple trees spilling their blossom like rain.
A girl’s sudden laughter, bright as a bell,
Still lives in the rooms of my heart like a spell.

Cicadas are calling, the sun floods the glass,
Pigeons lift startled above the tall grass.
I know that my childhood is never too far;
It sleeps in the hush beneath each evening star.

Pre-Chorus
Happiness smells like lavender rain,
An old wooden porch and a sweet windowpane.
Years may keep running, but one truth stays true:
The road that I traveled still runs through me too.

Chorus
Just smile, and the dark turns gold in my soul,
I find my small footprint, I find my way home.
My years may have flown on their wild, winding flight,
But memory sits by my heart every night.

Don’t trust the mirror when it tells you you’ve changed;
The girl in your laughter has never been strange.
Open your hands to the wind passing through,
And it will fly backward, and carry you too.

Verse 2
I saved what mattered without making a sound,
For riches are seconds when feet leave the ground.
Not coins in a pocket, not names on a door,
But moments you loved so completely they soar.

I cannot return, yet the past follows near,
In a gentle-eyed stranger, a song that I hear.
In voices beyond my half-opened window,
In blue evening shadows that soften and glow.

And there I am again, with the sea at my knees,
Making friends with the salt and the reckless sea breeze.
I thought all the world had a place just for me,
A map full of kindness, adventure, and sea.

Verse 3
I carried some sugar to ants in the sand,
I stroked every flower that grew by my hand.
I opened a beetle’s small wings in surprise,
And searched for whole galaxies in hedgehog eyes.

I caught at the stars when the night was awake,
And trusted each promise the morning could make.
I waited for wonder, I ran toward the sun,
Believing the beautiful world had begun.

Chorus
Just smile, and the dark turns gold in my soul,
I find my small footprint, I find my way home.
My years may have flown on their wild,