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Spoken version
A recorded reading of “We Swore on Shadows”. If the player does not load, use the original audio source.
We didn’t need light. We had each other. And the dark— she kept our secrets like bark keeps sap: close, unstarlit. We didn’t promise with rings. We promised with breath. With wrists sweat-slick and moth-dust, with fingers burr-pricked, hearts thudding their hush-hush warnings we refused to obey. In the forest we made an altar of roots, pews from windthrown trunks, a roof of leaf-stitch with shy proof of wind. And us— raw and real where no eye could trespass. You looked at me like I was a spell you feared to finish. I said your name as if it might undo me— and I wanted the undoing. We didn’t say “forever.” We said, “Until the dark forgets us.” We swore on shadows— because light kept telling on us, pointing out our footprints, the ash on our sleeves. And when the dawn came crawling, she hooked a loose thread from your cuff, silvered a bootlace, found the seam of the fog— and we didn’t run. We vanished: two knee-prints in the moss giving back our breath, a spiderline shivering once, then still.
Alternative version
We didn’t need light. We had each other. And the dark? She kept our secrets better than any sky ever could. We didn’t promise with rings. We promised with breath. With fingers tangled in moonlight, with hearts thudding like warnings we didn’t bother to heed. In the forest, we found a godless church. Branches for walls. Leaves for a roof. And us— raw and real in the places no one could see. You looked at me like I was a spell you were afraid to finish. And I said your name like it might undo me and I wanted it to. We didn’t say “forever.” We said, “Until the dark forgets us.” We swore on shadows— because light was always too proud to love us. And when the dawn came crawling, we didn’t run. We vanished. Together. Unlit. Unwritten. Unbroken.
Lyrics
We didn’t swear on stars or rings But shadows that the moonlight brings No altar lit, no chapel vows Just empty woods and silent boughs I took your hand With blood and grace And carved your name In sacred place They called us cursed But still we stayed Two ghosts alive In vows we made We swore on shadows Not on light We kissed in storms Not candlelight You were the truth I dared to trust We turned to flame And fed the dust We swore on shadows That we’d remain And let the dark Forget our names You touched my skin Like falling dusk A tender spell Of silent trust They never saw The world we grew Beneath the roots Where secrets flew They called us wrong But we were real A love that wounds But dares to heal We swore on shadows Not on light We kissed in storms Not candlelight You were the truth I dared to trust We turned to flame And fed the dust We swore on shadows That we’d remain And let the dark Forget our names (I won’t forget) Then stay unseen (I’ll find you still) In every dream (If time unwinds) We’ll still be flame (They lost our trail) But not our name We swore on shadows Not on light We burned in dark And found what’s right No scripture holds What we became But we were love Without the name
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