FAWM: "Aftercare"

Aftercare

2025 by @dr_griff

NSFW

Liner Notes

I wasn't sure I was going to share this one, but it's not up to me how other people interpret it. I will say it is NOT a stalker song. As the title says, it's about aftercare. IYKYK.

Lyrics

Am C G Am C E

Capo 2 Verse 1 Am Do you still want me? C G Can you open up that door? Am Do you still want me? C E I will give a little more Am Do you still want me? C G Am I still enough for you? Am Do you still want me? C E When you’ve cut me through and through?

CHORUS F G My heart is bleeding Am My soul is on fire F G Can you hear me pleading? Am I will do what you desire F G I can’t take this torture Am I don’t want it any more F Yet here I am E Still waiting by the door

Verse 2 Do you hear me? Can you open up your mind? Do you hear me? Oh, please don’t be unkind Do you hear me? Do you know what I will do? Do you hear me? To be enough for you

CHORUS

Verse 3 Now I’m going I can see that we are done Now it’s ending I guess you’ve had your fun Now I’m aching For the time I had with you Now I’m knowing That we are really through

CHORUS 2 My heart is scarring My soul is burned and dead Did you hear me crying? I did everything you said It’s the sweetest torture I want it every day And there I am I hope to hear you say

Verse 4 That you want me That it isn’t over now That you love me That you know I keep my vow That you need me That I heal the ache in you When you tell me To do what you want to do

And I do And I do I am true

Comments

@lbrewington 2025

Definitely does not come across as a stalker song. I'm sure i don't know if you know, but at the same time "when you tell me / to do what you want to do / and i do / and i do" is an interesting couple of lines. I also thought the lines "yet here i am / still waiting by the door" where intriguing. A fair amount of mystery on this as it repeats the theme of yearning, but phrases like "keep my vow", "torture / every day" has a more active presence. Interesting piece.

@moonraccoon 2025

I feel sorry for your narrator who can't bring themself to move on. Their lover needs to make a clean break, to rip off the bandaid and let the heartbroken fool re-find themself.

Perhaps that song of rediscovery could be as catchy and well-performed :)

@wynia 2025

I really dig the edge, urgency, and even plaintiveness of this. I can hear your heart in it and even though the lyrics are vague enough I can hear the specificity of the feels

@solcita 2025

The back-and-forth of the relationship, needing and being needed and the worry that you're not enough even though you've done the best you can--yes! This captures that tension so well.

@wylddandelyon 2025

Wow, that’s raw. I’d say that’s more about the moments of needing aftercare than the time of getting it, though. The emotion comes through strongly. I wonder about the “we are really through” though, since that usually would imply the end of a relationship, rather than the end of this one interaction. There might be a clearer phrase.

@matthewsanford 2025

I really like it Griff, but then you do a great job putting together songs and having them sound put together, not just rammed in.

Now I know you said it isn't a stalker kind of thing, but I think that is dependent on what the stalkee thinks of it, not the stalker... I am kidding! You know I kid! Don't worry about it kiddo! :)