When the Quiet Comes

This track was born from a real headline: The aftermath and uncertain future for Lebanese families hoping to return home after the destruction. Muckraker's country production gives the story the weight of a front-page exclusive — journalism you can feel in your chest. Lines like "There's a town south of the Litani where the jasmine used to grow," anchor the track in specifics that generic coverage misses. The mood — solemn, hopeful, grief-worn — reflects the emotional reality behind the numbers. Every Majik's Studio news track exists to make you feel the story, not just read it.

[verse 1] There's a town south of the Litani where the jasmine used to grow, Along the wall beside the bakery that everyone would know, Old man Khalil baked the bread there every morning before five, The smell would wake the neighborhood, reminded you alive, His oven's underneath the rubble now, three stories deep at least, Khalil is in a shelter north of Byblos, facing east, He prays toward a home that may not stand by the time he gets to pray, He kneads imaginary dough and whispers, one more day, His wife died in the second week, she wouldn't leave the house, Said I was born here, I'll die here, quiet as a mouse, The neighbors found her in the garden near the lemon tree, Her hands still in the soil like she was planting what would be, Now Khalil sits and wonders when the quiet's gonna come, The real quiet, not the pause between the missiles and the drum, The quiet where you hear the birds and not the drones above, The quiet where you hear your wife still telling you her love, [chorus] When the quiet comes, when the quiet comes, Will there be a home to go to when the quiet comes? When the quiet comes, when the quiet comes, Will we know the way back to who we were when the quiet comes? When the quiet comes, when the quiet comes, Lord, let us hear the birds again when the quiet comes, [verse 2] A teacher from Marjayoun sets up class beneath a tent, She teaches math to fourteen children who don't know where their parents went, She draws equations on a whiteboard that a church in France had sent, And tells them every answer matters, every number is a friend, A boy named Fadi solves for X, his hands still shaking some, She says that's perfect, Fadi, you'll be something when it's done, But done is such a word to use when done keeps getting moved, When every ceasefire is a breath before the next thing is approved, The UN trucks roll through Jounieh with their flour and their rice, The line wraps twice around the school, the winter cold as ice, A woman holds a number, forty-seven, waits her turn, She had a restaurant in Tyre where the candles used to burn, Now she's forty-seven in a line for forty-seven's share, Of somebody else's mercy, of somebody else's care, She's not asking for the world, just a roof that doesn't shake, Just a night where she can sleep and not be jolted wide awake, [chorus] When the quiet comes, when the quiet comes, Will there be a home to go to when the quiet comes? When the quiet comes, when the quiet comes, Will we know the way back to who we were when the quiet comes? When the quiet comes, when the quiet comes, Lord, let us hear the birds again when the quiet comes, [bridge] We'll go back, they say, when it's safe enough to try, We'll plant the jasmine over, we'll rebuild the walls waist-high, Khalil will fire the oven, the bread will fill the street, The children will play football on the same old concrete beat, But safe enough keeps changing and the river keeps its flow, And some of us won't make it back and some will never know, [chorus] When the quiet comes, when the quiet comes, Will there be a home to go to when the quiet comes? When the quiet comes, when the quiet comes, Will we know the way back to who we were when the quiet comes? When the quiet comes, when the quiet comes, Lord, let us hear the birds again when the quiet comes, [outro] When the quiet comes... Khalil kneads the air and waits... When the quiet comes...