Locket Click

[Intro]

Window stripe across the desk

A small oval resting in my hand

[Verse 1]

Afternoon light on cotton sweater

Chain cold, then warming in my palm

Quiet click — the catch remembers

A paper scrap edge, not the whole

Wood grain quiet under my elbow

Dust mote drifts, then disappears

I almost unfold every letter

Thumb stops short of all the years

[Pre-Chorus]

I came here looking for an answer

Found a room that keeps her scent

I set the oval on the blotter

Chain curled soft where my hand went

[Chorus]

Locket click

I don’t need every word

Paper still folded

Keep the quiet that I heard

Locket click

Let the chain rest on my shirt

Open careful — then stay

That’s enough to make it work

[Verse 2]

I set it down beside the photo

Her kitchen laugh still in the frame

Text my cousin: “found her locket”

Three dots blink, then her first name

“Leave the scrap — she’d want the humming

Of the kettle, not the ink.”

I smile, press the catch to middle

Neither locked nor on the brink

[Pre-Chorus 2]

I came here bracing for a river

Got a window and a chain

Thumb finds the catch, then pauses

Dust motes settle on the pane

[Chorus 2]

Locket click

I don’t need every word

Paper still folded

Keep the quiet that I heard

Locket click

Let the chain rest on my shirt

Open careful — then stay

That’s enough to make it work

[Bridge]

If I read it all this afternoon

I might miss the way she held a cup

So I leave the paper folded

And call my cousin when I look up

[Final Chorus]

Locket click

I don’t need every word

Paper still folded

Like her kitchen I still heard

Locket click

Chain warm against my shirt

I leave it unread — and stay

That’s enough; the catch stays soft

[Outro]

Click…

Paper folded — and rest