Coyote Silence

[Verse 1]
(Acapella, cold open) The Waffle House sign on Highway 17
(Music enters) is a tired yellow moon.
He watches her trace the scars on the table, a raccoon
washing a stone it won’t eat, in a river running thin.
Her hands are still. His are ghosts on his coffee cup’s brim.

[Chorus]
(Different vocalist, layered, ethereal)
And the words move in the dark, just under the skin.
Who’s the hunter, who’s the hunted, when the night won’t let you in?

[Verse 2]
The waitress fills his cup without looking at his face.
A barn owl’s patience in his shoulders, a stillness in this place.
She whispers, "'Think it's gonna rain?'" to the window, not to him.
A marsh hen hiding in the reeds, right at the water’s rim.

[Chorus]
(Different vocalist, layered, ethereal)
And the words move in the dark, just under the skin.
Who’s the hunter, who’s the hunted, when the night won’t let you in?

[Bridge]
(Lead and Chorus vocalists trade lines or harmonize)
For a second, his shadow moves, a fox across the porcelain field.
For a second, she almost looks up, the silent pact unsealed.

[Outro]
But the coffee’s getting cold.
Yeah, the silence is getting old.