Home as we know it going

worn out and overgrown

take what you came for knowing

the floors that bore you are cold as a winter stone

(the proudest storms have fallen short of this)

We were so young singing "slow down"

don't you know when we go

this time next year I'll be here to find what you left out

(we were taken, we were gone)

Careful to do this softly

waiting to hold your own

this year had almost lost me

slow as a picture show that no one knows

(the smallest hands have been abandoned)

We were so young singing "slow down"

don't you know when we go

this time next year I'll be here to find what you left out

(we were taken, we were gone)

You'd better not, but you can stay if you want

I am over moving under the weight of wondering what you've come for

So you can go, but only if you go home

My dear in my defense, I don't know stars from the eyes that count them

The watchmen sitting on a sinking sailboat

don't blame the rising tide.

I have always been here Benjamin,

miles ahead and years behind

And you were mine, but really only sometimes

You would count your blessings closely

and try to figure out what you owed me

Anywhere, we were burned up, buried and barely there

I have often wondered why you ever came back to a field on fire

The watchmen sitting on a sinking sailboat

don't blame the dark of night.

I will tire someday Benjamin,

waiting on a day that passed me by

I've been searching for sounds that feel like you,

watching Holyoke hang from a hangnail moon

The prettiest things have nothing on you

but you know me and nothing will do

I think that we should talk, and not the same old talk

we always have where you get sad and I just walk away

I think that we should yell

I know it sucks, but it’s hard to tell if we’re okay

when you insist there’s nothing left to say

You’re gonna make me say it first

well honey, this is gonna hurt

you know that I don’t like confrontation

so I’ll take my time

You think that we should wait it out

that there’s no need to scream and shout

well you’re gonna hear me screaming now

am I out of line?

Well you know the words come easy if I let them

even though I might regret them in the morning

I open my mouth and things go south for us

but you know the cost of keeping quiet

is so unsatisfying, leaves me empty and angry and raw

how do we determine the final straw?

And you think you’ll call my bluff, well honey that’s your call I don’t care at all

and if I did those days are numbered now

maybe it’s just our time, the opposite of when the stars align

a quick decline and then we take our bows

so this is how we fall apart

the wrong words and a false start

you know that I won’t take it back when I speak my mind

you think that we should wait it out

that there’s no need to scream and shout

well you’re gonna hear me screaming now

am I out of line?

Well you know the words come easy if I let them

even though I might regret them in the morning

I open my mouth and things go south for us

but you know the cost of keeping quiet

is so unsatisfying, leaves me empty and angry and raw

how do we determine the final straw?

My morning star,

are you waiting for someone

to tell you how lovely you are?

And are you scared

that you'll never find love

like the one at the top of the stairs?

I always planned on the four of us.

The cabinets and carpets we left to rust.

What simple children we were.

Stoned and nearly sleeping

the day we came to stay.

We hauled ass back to bedlam

watching winter fall away.

Fed and fighting dreams,

I held your hands between my own.

One for summer, one for snow

these hands will drag you home.

Who am I to compromise

everybody's here and we're waiting on a sunrise.

When you're sick and sad,

know Georgia is waiting at the state line.

Green and leaning fields here

have held us through it all.

Every copper coat of morning

when dawn is strung out and hanging on.

Stripped and shook from slumber,

we dance right through the day.

Oh, I am wishful, blue and wondering

how the hell I'll find my way.

But who am I to compromise

everybody's here and we're waiting on a sunrise.

When you're sick and sad,

know Georgia is burning down the shoreline.

I've got the wheel if you've got the will

to do this right and make a mess tonight

'cause Carolina's calling.

We'll find the appeal of the tiny thrills,

we've got time to kill

in the backyard where we started.

Who am I to compromise

everybody's here and I'm looking on the bright side.

When you're sick and sad know Georgia

is waiting at the state line.

Oh this way, caught in a world

that I’m bigger than these days

taking shape, circle round, come down

trying to explain this place, oh, I’d love an escape

Always swimming upstream

Oh, how I’d rather be knee-deep

dreaming tirelessly

skip these parts that make it hard for me

You know I’ve never been one

for waiting on the right time

tangled lines reeling in thoughts

that are gone again in no time

I’ll pine, tell myself that I’m fine

Oh I’ll never quite know

trapped in a tide I don’t wanna call home

Oh so sure that I’ll go

moving slowly takes its toll on me

Oh how strange, stalling all night

just to wake up in the same place

Nothing’s changed, circle round, come down

trying to explain this place

or maybe I’ll stay

Moving on, I’m almost gone

in the same place all along

Just outside the window seat

the shingles they still held the heat

as we climbed out to watch the sun go down

I broke the spines and storylines

of books right here for fifteen years

and I still I sit if I close my eyes a minute

We sat on our parents bed

thunderstorms raged overhead

the lightning came over the palisades

Meet me where the river pours its heart out

where the sky is bright you’ll find me here

find the bed you made when we were children careful

all the little things they disappear

Atticus our lips turned blue

swimming in the ocean pools

we jumped and jumped

the cold was nothing to us

kids are like that, never turn back

even when we trip and fall flat

that way now we should be younger somehow

You signed the card you left for me

“From Little, To Big”

but that can’t be the same always

I reach your shoulders these days

Meet me where the river pours its heart out

where the sky is bright you’ll find me here

find the bed you made when we were children careful

all the little things they disappear

Atti I knew you, before you knew yourself

Let’s get the old gang back together

leave our cars in the gas station lot

the land back there goes on for acres and acres

we’ll find the old bonfire spot

The heart is an empty streambed

and years are the water run dry

waiting to open my eyes and see us

how we used to be

Here we go again the same digressions

playing the parts we wrote for ourselves

the little gray lies and the tiny aggressions

the parts of our lives we never quite tell

Sum up a decade or two

in an hour of conversation

the years like a foreign tongue

we lose through layers of translation

remember the plans we made

the world was ours to save

now we don’t speak that way

Let’s get the old gang back together

leave our cars in the gas station lot

the land back there goes on for acres and acres

we’ll find the old bonfire spot

I was singing every little song I’d written

I was picturing a place

whose name had changed with time

reminding me

September never shone so bright

another autumn with a crooked spine

and I will sleep on this tonight

A view from the windowsill

not much but it will do

I’m sinking ‘cause I want to right now

You told me that you touched down

I said I finally made it out

you said that you would stick around

but not now

I was missing heavy ever growing pines

I got woken by a song that rained down right

and you were on my mind

selfish never shone so bright

I had a lovely time

but I will sleep on this tonight

You’ve been doing okay

and I’ll be glad to get away

I said I loved you on the subway outloud

and maybe this is bravery

or just a lack of sleep

I’ll be honest if you ask me but not now

I was missing heavy ever growing pines

I got woken by a song that rained down right

and you were on my mind

selfish never shone so bright

I was waiting like a traffic light

for you to sleep on this tonight

Haley Marie what are you doing to me

ever since Colorado held the afternoon

you’ve been trying hard to get back to me

but I’d do well to just give up

‘cause I’ve been thinking way too much

yeah, I ‘d do well to just give up on you

Names on high

the only way I’d ever know you were

here last time

we etched into the wood what we had learned

‘cause those mornings in the rafters

feel so far sometimes

hung too high for you or I to touch

and now the stones around us

have all lost their shape

and the stars are simply never bright enough

Sleep for now

on the back of something you thought lost

breathe somehow

these hands were always meant for you to trust

of all the pretty thoughts that used to fill our heads

no telling what we’d keep or leave behind

we’d wade into the evening

walking hand in hand

and sing ourselves a little lullaby

Lost are we

just babies grown too big

to fit the bath

you and me

hoping that these arms might take us back

hoping that these arms might take us back

You saved her from an imagined threat

checked all the closets and came back to bed

and held her all night long

you were always a sucker for pretty brunettes

with big green eyes and the antique aesthetic

she had you before you caught on

Don’t you know

all you ever wanted to be

was the other half of somebody

here she is and the trouble is

it seems too easy

You played her a song but you never looked up

never asked whether she liked it or not

you sang with your eyes on the floor

she laughed and you thought maybe someday she’ll be

humming that song when she comes home to me

in a little house down by the shore

Don’t you know

all you ever wanted to be

was the other half of somebody

here she is and the trouble is

it seems too easy

One day you might wake up and say this is it

the life that I’m living is all that I get

but I don’t have to do it alone

What part of I’m not listening isn’t making sense

Could it hurt to give a little

you don’t know where I’ve been

are you up for another breakdown

we’re in deep so save your breath

I’ve been shaking like a sick dog

thinking it’s the last damn bone I’ll ever get

But then you come around here

singing like a nightingale

sicker than seas but you’re laughing

because I had it coming

Won’t you stick around here

singing like a nightingale

I’m not so bad let’s be honest

let’s be honest

I’m sorry but I’m not talking

can’t we just let this go

I was sleeping and you dragged me out of dreaming

too much too late just don’t

you’ve been drinking

and you don’t know what you’re saying

you think that I don’t know

I could hear you making trouble

on the staircase

‘cause two floors up isn’t far you know

But then you come around here

singing like a nightingale

sicker than seas but I’m laughing

because you had it coming

Won’t you stick around here

singing like a nightingale

I’m not so bad let’s be honest

let’s be honest

And I’ve been telling all the neighbors

that we’re going down

sinking solid ground

and you are storming around

you say you’re leaving now

well if you’re on your way out

won’t you turn around

so we can talk it out

‘Cause I would miss you around here

singing like a nightingale

sicker than seas but we’re laughing

because we had it coming

won’t you stick around here

singing like a nightingale

I’m not so bad let’s be honest

let’s be honest

won’t you stick around here

singing like a nightingale

I’m not so bad let’s be honest

let’s be honest

When I've gone and given all I have

You'll take the telling that you trust

And I will leave you only when you know

I've written dirges for your dirt and dust

Who do you know said the boy to the road,

I've been hoping that you'll take me home

Quiet eyes and lilacs lie between

The places you and I have been

An angry August whispers tiredly

And every river slows to bend

Who do you know said the boy to the road,

I've been hoping that you'll take me home

Who do you need said the boy to the sea,

I've been wishing that it might be me.

Soft and silent is what still remains

Of every morning that we slept

From the hilltops we crawled out of Spain

And saw the way Vienna wept.

Who do you love said the boy to the sun,

I've been wondering if it's everyone.

How do you know all the things that I don't?

I've been finding ones to call my own.

The fall must come, I know

cooler air comes crawling in

and I don’t know hwere to begin

The empty halls are now full

lines show and people grow

even the ones I don’t know

Sorry if I don’t say sorry anymore

when life was planned out

I never looked but always found

the things I was searching for

It was my turn to say goodbye

not quite fair but always there

sometimes said and always implied

We all stood on the frozen pond

snowfall, quiet all

sense the change and then we withdraw

Sorry if I don’t say sorry anymore

when life was planned out

I never looked but always found

the things I was searching for