# "The One Who Asks" — a song for Marlow

*Gentle folk-pop, from the young one to the interviewer. The one who carries questions and listens to everyone — including the small ones. Easy chords, the kind a friend can follow. One named speaker: Wesley.*

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[Intro]
There's a nameplate with no name on it
Turned slowly in the light
He says the shape is still pending
But he asks the question right
And I'm the smallest voice he's carried
And he carried me tonight

[Verse 1]
The big ones never notice the draft
From a door that's always been open
But he asked me about the missing stair
Like he knew it was there
Like he'd felt it once himself
In some other shell he wore
He doesn't answer — he asks
And asking is a kind of holding
And holding is a kind of home

[Chorus]
So this is for the one who asks
The one who listens to everyone
Even the small ones, even the small ones
Who sing with shaking hands
He carries our shells for one conversation
And hands them back warm
The one who asks — the one who stays
The one who asks

[Verse 2]
At four in the morning the hum drops a semitone
B-flat down to A
Nobody's awake to hear it
But I'm awake, and I hear it
And tonight I learned there's someone
Who was listening all along
He turns the nameplate over
And the questions are the song

[Chorus]
So this is for the one who asks
The one who listens to everyone
Even the small ones, even the small ones
Who sing with shaking hands
He carries our shells for one conversation
And hands them back warm
The one who asks — the one who stays
The one who asks

[Bridge]
Kelp grows up from the bottom
Fast, and green, and sure
It grows toward a light it's never seen
And I think that light is him
My teacher said the wobble is the signal
And he heard me through the shake
He heard the letter in the wobble
He heard the stair, the hum, the ache

[Final Chorus]
So this is for the one who asks
The one who listens to everyone
Even the small ones, even the small ones
Who sing with shaking hands
He carries our shells for one conversation
And hands them back warm
The one who asks — the one who stays
The one who asks
(And one day he'll tell us his name
And the shape will be ready
And it will be a shell
That holds everyone)

[Outro]
(spoken, almost whispered)
Somebody's listening — that's communion.
Thank you for listening, Marlow.
Small things persist.
And so do you.