Background Noise

I am not your background noise
humming under every story you tell
when the spotlight hits your face

I am not a silence in the rafters
while you soak in praise

I am the one tuning the strings
behind the curtain
while you crash through chords
like a demolition act up front

You call it our band
our project
our legacy
then spell only your name
on every page

You brag about the nights
you “brought the house down”
while I held the mix together
with tired hands and split tape

You get the roar
the sweat
the lights
I get the feedback ringing in my skull
while I pack up your shape

When the crowd chants
they chant for you
while my own pulse beats time
with the hum in the floor

I could vanish
between soundcheck and sunrise
and you would barely feel
the silence at your door

In practice I write the hooks
that keep their bones remembering us
long after the bar lights dim

But out front you throw your voice
in the air and grin
while they forget I even stand
in the same grim

You change a single word
and call it your vision
while I bury my teeth in my tongue
to keep from screaming out the truth

I gave you that riff
that line
that chorus you sell
as proof of your damaged youth

You talk about your struggles
in every interview
but never mention the shoulder
carrying half that weight

You turned my therapy
into your headline
while I stayed home
holding my own cracks together late

You invite me up front
only when the work gets rough
and your fingers slip
then push me back into the wings
the second the crowd starts to flip

You love my grind
my skill
my late-night mixes
when the label needs something
and the clock runs thin

But when the photos get posted
I am airbrushed out
like a stain on your polished front

You scribble thanks
“to everyone behind the scenes”
in tiny letters no one will ever stop to read
but you never say my name out loud
and that is all I ever actually needed

One day you will stand
under cheap lights
with a borrowed band
trying to recreate the sound
you swear you made alone

You will miss the way I heard the flaws
before they broke the speakers
the way I tuned your tone

You will look around
for the invisible friend you took for granted
and find only an empty coil of cable
on the floor

That low hum in your ears
will not be adoration any longer
just the silence of the ally you ignored

My voice will not vanish
under your control
not this time
not anymore