"Mirror Medicine" by Rap 12AM

Mirror Medicine by Rap 12AM Lyrics: (Intro: A pitched-down spoken word sample, filtered) "The mirror don't lie... but it don't tell the truth either..." (Beat drops—off-kilter, hypnotic) (Hook - Sung, haunting, almost nursery-rhyme simplicity) Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who's the loneliest of all? Tell me something I don't know, Show me somewhere I can go. Mirror, mirror, on the floor, I don't recognize me anymore. (Verse 1 - Abstract, fragmented, stream-of-consciousness) (Flow: Loose, conversational, syllables stretched and bent) Yeah— I look in the glass and see a stranger I've been feeding, A reflection that's been bleeding through the cracks in my repeating. My face is a collage of the people I've been meeting, My eyes are the receipts of the secrets I've been keeping. I told the truth once, it tasted like a lie, So I swallowed both and learned to breathe through the divide. My shadow walks ahead of me, my future trails behind, I'm stuck inside the present like a splinter in the mind. They ask me "Who are you?" I say "Depends on who's listening," I'm the echo of a question that's been permanently glistening— A diamond made of pressure, a pearl made of the grit, A poem that was written just to prove that I exist. (Hook) Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who's the loneliest of all? Tell me something I don't know, Show me somewhere I can go. Mirror, mirror, on the floor, I don't recognize me anymore. (Verse 2 - Denser, more rhythmic, building tension) (Flow: Tighter, more internal rhyme, faster on the ends) Uh— My mind is a museum of the moments I've been missing, Exhibits of the kisses that I never got to christen. I walk through the halls, hear the echoes of my choices, The voices of the versions of myself that lost their voices. I used to want the spotlight, now I want the shade, I used to want the answers, now I love the masquerade. 'Cause certainty is prison, and doubt is just a door, And I've been opening and closing 'em till my hands are sore. My therapist said "Talk to yourself," I said "He don't listen," My mother said "Pray to God," I said "He's gone fishin'." So I write my own religion in the margins of the page, A gospel made of fragments, a sermon made of rage— And peace. (Bridge - Beat strips to just the bass and distant trumpet) (Spoken-word, intimate, raw) I don't want to be fixed, I want to be understood. I don't want to be saved, I want to be good— Not good like the angels, Not good like the saints, But good like the morning, When the rain finally breaks. I want to be the quiet that follows the storm, I want to be the shape that the light takes to form. I don't need a hero, I don't need a crown, I just need to look in the mirror And not look down. (Trumpet swells, beat slowly returns) (Verse 3 - Closing, melodic, hypnotic) (Flow: Floating, sung/rapped, almost lullaby-like) Yeah— I found my reflection in the bottom of a glass, But it wasn't wine, it was time—going past. I saw my younger self drowning in the deep, Told him "Hold your breath, the water's just a sleep." He looked at me with eyes that held the weight of every year, And said "You promised we'd be free, but we're still here." I didn't have an answer, so I gave him a song, A melody so fragile it could barely hold on— But it held. It held like the cracks hold the light, Like the dark holds the stars at the end of the night. So I keep writing, keep bleeding, keep bending the page, 'Cause the mirror ain't a prison, it's a stage— And I'm still performing for the only one who's watching, The kid in the reflection who's still learning how to stop and Breathe. (Outro - Fades to just the detuned piano and hiss) (Whispered, fading) Mirror, mirror... On the floor... I don't recognize me... ...Anymore. (Single piano key, held until it fades. Silence.)