“Signs Only Bleed”

I used to wait on 11:11
Hold my breath like the clock could hear
Pluck the clovers down to nothing
Asking flowers to be sincere
Watched the sky for falling answers
Silver streaks through borrowed dark
Every wish was just a bargain
With a universe that missed the mark


I left the small soft superstitions
For something higher something true
Traded luck for revelation
Put my waiting faith in You
Now I stare into the silence
Like it owes me something said
But heaven speaks in long delays
And patience feels like being bled


I don’t see You in the sunlight
Or the easy gentle days
I only hear You in the breaking
When everything I love gives way
If Your voice is in the hurting
If Your hands are in the scars
Then I’ll learn to read the language
Written where the wounded are


I ask for signs and miss them walking
Past my door in ordinary skin
I want thunder I want burning bushes
You answer low and deep within
You don’t shout You don’t perform
You don’t bow to my demand
You wait until I’m on my knees
Before I finally understand


I don’t see You in the sunlight
Or the calm untroubled air
I only find You in the midnight
When I’m stripped down to my prayer
If You teach through all the suffering
If You carve Your truth in pain
Then I’ll stop asking for proof
And let the waiting change my name


Maybe faith is not the seeing
Maybe it’s the staying put
Maybe all the signs I’m begging for
Are written where they hurt the most
You were never in the wishing
You were always in the cost
In the love I couldn’t keep
In the things I thought I lost


So I’ll stop checking the clocks
And reading leaves on the ground
If You speak it’s in the ache
That finally slows me down


I won’t look for You in luck now
Or the stars that pass and fade
I’ll find You in the silence
That teaches me to wait
If You only speak in sorrow
If that’s where Your truth departs
Then I’ll listen with my whole life
And learn to see You through the scars


I waited on a sign from heaven
Found You standing in the hurt
And it broke me just enough
To finally know Your word

folk, soul, blues, and rock, with strong elements of gospel, R&B, and indie, Southern Gothic, male voice