A Lesser Tremor

[Verse 1]
You drew the fault line in the pine dust on the cabin porch
Saturday, 4 PM, May seventeenth.
The air felt tight, a held breath waiting for a torch
Just another weekend in between.

[Pre-Chorus]
And all the birds went quiet in the Douglas firs
A low hum vibrated through the floorboards
But you were just tracing the wild grain on the kitchen door
Waiting for a different kind of war.

[Chorus]
And they'll write epics of the ash and falling sky
But you and I, we had a lesser tremor
A smaller way to die that afternoon
And that's the silence I remember.

[Verse 2]
The Toutle River water burned my hands it was so cold
You said, "I feel a pressure in my bones, like getting old."
I tried to build a fire from the damp and useless wood
A mortise joint that never really stood.

[Pre-Chorus]
And the barometer was lying on the kitchen wall
A needle steady, promising us sun
You were packing up a box of books out in the hall
As if the real damage wasn't done.

[Chorus]
And they'll write epics of the ash and falling sky
But you and I, we had a lesser tremor
A smaller way to die that afternoon
And that's the silence I remember.

[Bridge]
And all that sawdust of a life we tried to build
Became a grey patina on the windowsill
A finer powder than the one that was to come
A quiet suffocation, deaf and dumb.

[Chorus]
They can have their epics of the ash and falling sky
'Cause you and I, we had a lesser tremor
A harder way to die that afternoon
And that's the silence I remember.

[Outro]
(False ending - song cuts to silence for 3-4 seconds)

(Acoustic guitar returns, sparse and gentle)
The mountain never gave a reason.
You never did, either.