on a bus or a bike or however you like let’s reset back to that fixed point in space and on the clock face where we first met and i’ll wear my grey flannel shirt you wear your scarf and that dress and pretend all that’s happened to us hasn’t happened yet you may get startled being dragged a couple wall calendars back oh, are you dizzy yet? don’t worry, girl, we’re just a block away from our old coffee shop so let’s visit it, oh they’re not closed yet and i know that we cannot last consuming pieces of the past like it’s food but let’s try to make it through this song oh you be strong and i’ll be strong for you escape with me, come with me achingly, hungrily i’ve got some plans for us take my hand and we will dance into the sweetest second chance oh we’re the lucky ones and cosmic dust and star perfume will trace our steps around the room oh we’re burning suns we are bright and young we are and if the music isn’t in you i’d rather kiss you behind the venue you must know i know last time where we burnt out so i charted a different route – let’s go. escape with me, come with me achingly, hungrily i’ve got some plans for us i plotted a course, i’m following stars to where my path and yours melts into ours would it help to say i’m sorry that i wrote you into this story and here’s the part where we were scribbled in to kiss you go like that i go like this and we go but if by night we could decrypt the light of stars and scratch the script well maybe we could shine again and i’d say it’s so nice to to meet you and now you say, it’s so nice to meet you oh it’s so nice to meet you for the very first time again

when days with wings like these are dawned we put our pilots’ goggles on we put our pilots’ goggles on we put them on when hearts as large as ours are pierced our blood is hot and thick and fierce we fill our glasses to the top don’t spill a drop spread our wings and we fall raise our voices and sing we’ve got nothing at all we’ve got nothing when clouds as dark as these roll in we turn our faces towards the wind bring on the wind, bring on the rain we’re not afraid and when it comes and if it’s bad and if the wind takes off our hats we won’t be scared by any storm we’ll huddle close for warmth spread our wings and we fall raise our voices and sing we’ve got nothing at all we’ve got nothing spread our wings and we fall punctured hearts and we bleed we’ve got nothing at all we’ve got all that we need when afternoons are long and gone we wave at the departing sun when evening’s anchor’s weighed then we will watch the stars over the sea when nights this thick and sweet sink in take off our heavy things and swim and kick until we can no more and wash up on the morning’s shore when days… when days with wings like these are dawned we put our pilots’ goggles on we put our pilots’ goggles on we put them on.

got your resignation you had problems left to solve guess you grew impatient with how slowly we evolve making calculations mixing chemicals and things trying to persuade your two arms to turn to wings and i tried explaining that you really have to wait and there is no changing, that’s just how we operate. heard your days in shambles you fell down and you got hurt taking soil samples wondering what is in the dirt that makes you feel so heavy what magnetic forces steer you so each and every step just leads you back here and i ask politely can i get a drink for you? and you smile slightly say i’m only passing through only passing through. got your resignation you had problems left to solve guess you grew impatient with how slowly we evolve making calculations mixing chemicals and things trying to persuade your two arms to turn to wings heard you’re through with practice heard you’re done dealing with doubt got your world atlas looking for a way out where’s the greyhound going? what’s the airline’s cheapest rate? or does someone know when that next shuttle leaves for space? but each time you try to you can’t find your car keys so the summer drives you so the summer drives you let the summer drive you crazy so if you’re feeling stifled and you’re down on your knees and life’s too true to life and it’s too much to beleieve it only takes a knife and the intention to bleed the resolution to leave the resignation to go i think it’s time you quit i think it’s time you quit quitting.

you’ve got a great big heart and i think we better cut it out i’ve got a sharp sharp knife and a surgeons eye for décor i’ve got a big world atlas but i haven’t got it figured out i thought that we were going nowhere but it seems we took a detour so strap yourself in and turn yourself on i want to win before the motivation’s gone every single morning make another suicide pact and every afternoon we think of how we will enact it and every little evening let’s stay focused don’t get sidetracked until morning comes around and it seems we got distracted and covered in dew and naked and cold i turn to you and you turn to gold. another meteor shower and i think the stars are on to me because they keep on falling closer and i’m just about to lose hope and maybe it’s because i flunked out of astronomy or ‘cause i always put more faith in the horo- than the tele-scope you’ve got a great big heart. they say the body is a bandage used to stop the spirit bleeding and i think i’m being candid that it’s time we take the cast off so take off all your clothes ‘cause where we’re going you won’t need them swallow the instructions and prepare yourself for blast off so strap yourself in and turn yourself off you can learn how to win or you can learn how to love i want to learn how to love i want to learn how to love i want to learn how to love so let me learn how to

i’ve got a rope going to unset the sunset and bring it back i’ve got a rope going to lasso the sunset and pull till she’s undressed and everything’s sunlit but wait – i’m not done yet tie one end to a tree so we can have an afternoon however long that we feel like it. i’ve got a rope going to unset the sunset and bring it back

is it cold where you are is the night full of stars like these do you feel the same breeze is it please to believe that all of the tree leaves have fallen, have settled have given up freely conceded, resigned to their failure and would it remind you if twice repeated or find you familiar that it is the same thing that we did or at least similar. but if the leaves fall, well it’s nothing symbolic so spare the invective, remember it’s december. it’s expected. is it cold where you are is the heat in your car just as useless i don’t know if you knew this or if you even care but i swear that to have it repaired was on my to-do list it was scribbled in sideways between buying you something so pretty to wear and cooking you dinner on friday. but oh tell me where was the courtesy and oh behind two eyes so clueless won’t you tell me what smile lay that you’d consider leaving on a thursday and what’s more, that you’d actually choose this to carve your space in the driveway. and we all know the roadway to making things okay is circuitous and the road leading out is a highway. i think your story proves this but if the heat falters or if the car stalls well, it’s nothing symbolic it’s nothing at all it’s no sign of nothing so hopeless and so if it deserves it you give it a jump start and if not’s worth it you haul it to the junkyard but i think you already know this is it cold where you are is the door cracked ajar to your room is the light of the moon undermining the gloom and filtering down through the blinds and casting white lines on the floorboards your two tired eyes drawn towards them how like dust or like leaves they will settle like the flickering heat you can’t depend on when the clouds gather breath and balloon transfixed like lips kissed to cold metal can you find some envelope to send on can you do it soon can you draw up some ink from the well of the night take those feathery clouds and pick out a plume can you gather your thoughts like the stars in the sky and sit down and write me a letter and i give you my word if you’d send some of yours i would be such an attentive reader and tell me, my darling is it cold where you are and please know it’s not all that warm here, either

when i say that i'm not worried about you anymore please don't take it out of line i just mean to say i know that you'll be fine

if the world was really flat if it really had an edge we could pile in the car we could drive out to the ledge we could get out and we’d walk till we’re standing at the rim we’d crack some beers and crack some jokes about if somebody fell in we could sit down where we stood with the cities at our backs staking out the choicest real estate of a view into the black we are lost and losing track of ourselves, the beers, the hours legs dangling into nothingness toes dipping into stars if we chanced to skip some stones just how many would it take to redraw the constellations with the ripples that we make to create a different shape one whose outline would suggest a girl holding hands with a boy at the edge of the world if the night was made of water if the moon was angled right if we had the proper length of string to lasso that thing tight we could hoist ourselves up on the rope and swing out off the rim and splash into the darkness there but what would we do then? we’d swim

if you’re letting me down lower me slowly when no one’s around you and i glow in the dark like a couple of sparklers but if you’re letting me go make sure to use both hands don’t be lingering so at the end of the slow dance move on, it’s the end of our song it was a good song let it be a good song gone if you’re calling it quits call it out loudly and when the earth splits would you stand by it proudly the ground cleaves creating new boundaries that rivers will fill and then canyons divide and you stay on your side i’ll stay on our side and we can both wave and call it a day and i don’t no long love letters or standing offers to make things better by making them softer let this be the peace toast where my feet are i’ll stay and i’ll take the east coast and you take the highway and don’t go listening to our song let it be a good song gone no don’t go whistling our song let it be a good song gone oh it was a good song let it be a good song gone

write me a letter give me something to read through tell me you’re better but lie if you need to i haven’t heard good news for three or four weeks send me a postcard of somewhere you visit tell me it’s lovely well, how lovely is it? how does the sunset color the beach? tell me you miss me wish you were with me or closer, at least and say it’s okay that we’re fuckups and freaks. i can be strong whenever i choose to
i’ve got two hands and i might just use them to get in the car and point the car east six cups of coffee, and darling i’m trying i let the stereo do most of the driving i’m somewhere else, i’m with you i think when you’re in the kitchen listen for my engine my hands at your door tired and shaking, put them in yours. if ever my voice sounds like there’s something it’s masking it is a question that i’ll never ask you: would you leave the east coast and come back with me? and leave all your bones at the beach to get buried i’ll get a real job, and we can get married and try to be happy on a teacher’s salary the dog knocks over the trashcan you dream of waves crashing over bones buried deep i pick it back up and you go back to sleep. i’ll pick it back up and you go back to sleep you know it’s okay that we’re fuckups and freaks i’ll pick it back up and you go back to sleep i’ll get in the car and i’ll point the car east we’ll pick it back up and you go back to sleep

if you’ve got nothing to say to me now then say it like you mean it like you believe it like it’s the holiest silence you ever let fall from your lips

with what’s left of me i will build a mountain my fingers are trees they point to the skies my feet are long roots sending down shoots and drinking you water my hair is wild grass it falls down my sides my flesh is the soil earthen slopes of stones piled steeply and my bones are just bones buried deep take a walk to the top you can take in the view take a good look around for an hour or two and if there’s something you’ve found that you want then you can take it back down then and with what’s left of me i will build a mountain

i took a little spill i fell pretty far i fear i fell a few thousand feet through some planet’s atmosphere but i landed on my feet, somehow now i’m assessing the damage done my body’s banged up, my dear but each and all of my thoughts are clear as water i walked an hour or so without a sign of where i was and so i walked some more i found a river there one thousand feet below a mountain i was standing tall on i felt my body go next thing that i recall was water. now i’m feeling fine again and i can do anything i got your letter, babe from a passing flock of birds i liked what you had to say and i loved the spaces between your words it’s a delicate editing act the surgical use of a fine red pen to say all that you want to with tact but leave enough out to let the light in and it’s really a remarkable gift one i wasn’t blessed in being born with and sometimes i wonder if i left too much of the good stuff out. i left too much of it out. but that doesn’t matter now i’m here to love you now yes, i’m here to love you now i’m here to love you

let this be a place you stay in between your other destinations i know that you’re on your way to somewhere else still i think it’d be fine to see again your pretty face to hear your laugh, those blue eyes i dive into so sit down please and allow me to catch up before you race ahead again if we chance to spill some wine into ourselves and then we get to talking if it drips down to our feet we leave our seats and you and i go walking simple streets we won’t get lost in sunny skies painted pastel i smell of sweat and smoke from austin but you’re as cool as sweet as asheville and we don’t have to meet our lips and we don’t have to mold our hips together if you tell me this it’s nice to see you it’s been a little while it’s nice to see you it’s been a little while it’s nice to when the wind is high and right we take our kites to fields outside the city i’ll let go when the string is tight see if we can get this thing up off the ground when night pulls down a curtain on the daytime we head back to town, i hope you’ll stay i’m missing you a lot these days i don’t know what i’m doing in this town and when september rolls around here if your heart has had some bad luck if a cure cannot be found here maybe we can pack the car up if i remember where your porch is and if these wheels withstand the rattle of a highway headed northwest we’ll spend some time up in seattle and bum around the small cafes spend all we saved for rainy days and try to find ourselves a place where we’ll be happy for just a little while or maybe longer than just a little while it’s nice to see you later see you there i’ll see you later see you there let this be a place you stay between where you are and where it is you’re going i promise you that it’s okay to settle here if only like a feather falling off an autumn breeze before again that winter wind starts blowing just let me be a friend in need and need me now and then, forever

say you like the way that we unfolded like a flower stretching petals in the morning wait now hold it wait now slowly wait now wait now say you like the way that we unraveled spinning distances between us we can’t travel with an ink pen with a spaceship with a bike so just be patient wait now wait now all we can say is wait now wait now wait now wait now