[Intro]

[Atmospheric cello notes leading into a slow, rhythmic acoustic guitar strum]

[Verse 1]

Do you know the weight of a heavy soul?

Where the joy of the dawn has lost control

Can you feel the ache of a hollow chest

Searching for a place where the weary rest?

[Verse 2]

The angel of light has a clouded eye

Watching the dreams of the wretched die

Every prayer is a stone in a silent deep

While the ghosts of the morning refuse to sleep

[Chorus]

Oh, the mercy we seek is a fading ghost

The things that we love are the ones we lose most

Give me a sign that the fever will break

Or a hand I can hold for the misery's sake

A drop of the nectar to drown out the night

[Verse 3]

You walk in the garden where the thorns are red

Counting the words that the dying said

The velvet of sin is a comfort now

With a crown of regret on a sweating brow

[Chorus]

Oh, the mercy we seek is a fading ghost

The things that we love are the ones we lose most

Give me a sign that the fever will break

Or a hand I can hold for the misery's sake

A drop of the nectar to drown out the night

[Bridge]

[Tempo slows, stripped back to a single piano line]

Even the saints have a debt to pay

In the bitter cold of a wasted day

We trade our gold for a bit of grey

[Outro]

Keep the light burning low

Where the tired shadows go

Just a little mercy

Just a little breath

[Fade out with a single, echoing chord]