Smell

Is this the part where the brain scan shows where memories reside?
Some ambiguous shape in me, suddenly producing light
Triggered like a tripwire every time I breathe it in
Isn't it strange that a lilac tree is what unlocks where I've been?

Like a time machine rebuilds the past, my memories return
Like remembering the ashes before they burn

It is the friction that lights a match
Desperate attempts that make it last
So I hold my breath for as long as I can
But before long, the wind swells in
I started a fight I could never win
But I will hold on as long as I can

It vanishes against my will
The light goes out, my heart goes still
And just like that, I believe in ghosts

Time and space are at my back
Performing disappearing acts
Now I can't escape the smell of smoke

The research says that the only way to keep memories intact
Is to lock them away and close the door until countless years have passed
I guess that explains why the strangest things can conjure up the past
And forgotten time will find its long way back

As thin as air, as light as snow
Some combination of the unknown
But it doesn't matter, I just know I need more
'Cause I feel like I've been sleeping through the better part of this
Laying dormant through an endless winter that doesn't even exist

It's gravity in an hourglass
Responsible for the avalanche
And the loudest silence that I've ever heard
A memory clear as a bell
A story that I will try to tell
But maybe this time, without words