[Intro]
[Fingerpicked guitar moves in a slow waltz while bowed bass holds the thunder motif.]

A paper cup.
A plastic sign.
Rain on the shelter.
Cheap red wine.

[Verse 1]
The label showed a painted hill,
The taste was iron, smoke and dill.
I drank beneath the number nine,
While rain drew bars across the sign.
My red coat darkened at the sleeve;
The city hurried, took its leave.
No one looked up, no one knew
The cloud above the station answered Zeus.

[Chorus]
Rain over cheap wine,
Red on my tongue, cold on the sign.
One lifted hand and the river could climb;
One angry thought and the flood would be mine.
Rain over cheap wine—
Power still works, but power isn’t a sign.

[Verse 2]
I watched the gutters take their fill,
Each silver stream obeyed me still.
The storm leaned klohs against my palm,
A waiting dog, alert and calm.
I pictured windows losing light,
The landlord’s ledgers drowned by night.
I pictured every tenant’s face—
Then saw the child from floor three in that place.

[Pre-Chorus]
Her yellow boots, her laundry bear,
Her mother carrying both downstairs.
Revenge looked grand before it grew
A room, a name, a child I knew.

[Chorus]
Rain over cheap wine,
Red on my tongue, cold on the sign.
One lifted hand and the river could climb;
One angry thought and the flood would be mine.
Rain over cheap wine—
Power still works, but power isn’t a sign.

[Instrumental]
[Slide guitar traces falling phrases while brushes keep the slow waltz.]

[Verse 3]
I closed my fist; the rain fell thin.
The gutter dropped, the lights came in.
No one applauded what I spared;
No one could praise a choice unshared.
Perhaps that made the choice more true—
No witness, temple, crown or cue.
I poured the bottle down the drain
And let the city keep its ordinary rain.

[Bridge]
The hardest storm I ever stayed
Was not the one a rival made.
No titan stood, no army came;
Just one old thirst to spread my shame.
I held the cloud and let it pass—
A king defeated by a paper glass.

[Final Chorus]
Rain over cheap wine,
The river stays low, the streetlights shine.
I lowered my hand before the flood could climb;
No hymn marked the hour, no bell marked the time.
Rain over cheap wine—
Power that stops may yet become mine.
Not mine to spend, not mine to sign;
Rain over cheap wine.

[Outro]
[The acoustic guitar resolves while the bowed bass rises instead of descending.]

The cloud moves east.
The buses run.
For once I leave
The damage undone.