May Twelfth

[Verse 1]
The air on Osage Avenue, May twelfth, nineteen eighty-five.
You draw those row house blueprints, just tryin' to keep a line alive.
The heat off the asphalt smelled just like comin' rain,
I see the ghost of that whole block when you whisper my name, Simone.
I'm tryin' to brace the joists, girl, I'm tryin' to keep the frame.

[Chorus]
(Sung by a different, ethereal female voice)
The sky didn't say a word
The quietest fire I ever heard

[Verse 2]
This quiet in our apartment feels just like that afternoon.
The Baldwin's gone cold, and you're comin' home soon.
Gussie told me once, "Child, some timbers ain't meant to hold."
She was talkin' 'bout a shrimp boat, a story decades old.
But I feel it in our floorboards, a fault line of new cold.

[Chorus]
(Sung by a different, ethereal female voice)
The sky didn't say a word
The quietest fire I ever heard

[Bridge]
I used to fight the current, baby, sand against the grain.
Now I just watch the window, feelin' peace inside the rain.
This ain't no shipwreck, darlin', it's just a low tide of the soul.

[Outro]
(Barry's voice, almost a whisper, over the female vocal hook)
Just the quiet, baby... yeah.
The quietest fire I ever heard.