Mother, sister, daughter, friend You are the surest thing in my life I will love you till the end My heart beats stronger just knowing that I make you proud And as I write this song about your love, I promise to sing it loud "Son you must practice patience A cluttered room leads to a cluttered mind Just brush yourself off and keep your chin up I promise this will all end up fine" "Mothers plant within our hearts the seeds that swiftly grow Into the sweetest memories that we will ever know" Her words are powerful enough To make dust seem like fine gold His voice has strength enough To crush mountains into stone They put the future on hold until further notice When it came calling, as an answer They told it they'd found something far more suited for their care In Idaho, they started a family In California, they found the lumber And in Connecticut, they built the frame On the ocean is how he fed his family With her hands she tilled the soil And with his he repaired the roof, the walls, the floorboards "We made love We made life We built this home" "We built such a beautiful home, my love" We made love We made life We built this home And in it we poured all that was in our hearts We made love We made life We built this home But in the winter, with the cold, the pipes all burst from the frost We made love We made life We built this home And as we look towards the future We'll answer its call in stride

Someday I would like to meet myself for the first time With eyes of brilliant silver And an unquenchable thirst to know I'm not as young as I used to be My knees have gotten weak, and my memory's grown thin Uncertainty holds back a once steady hand And time plagues every option Only stories and fingerprints connect me to the child of my youth Time is never as honest as she'd have you believe Remembering when we remembered when we were so full of youth How we longed for the truth We made a promise we swore that we'd keep Climbing through the trees This summer will never die This summer we can never die

You've kept me lying awake at night Calling out to a god that I don't necessarily believe in Or really even subscribe to And after all you've changed in me I could never really change you A husband I am not A father I am not A lover I am not A wretch I am

We used to worship the sun Our pockets filled with sugar and sand Blistered and splintered hands We were innocent once We tried our hands at purity Never thinking we would fall short We lived between the moments And there beneath the trees We spoke to constellations In the hopes that we were worth saving Our prayers never made it past our ceilings So maybe we gave up trying You saved your breath for holding I'm saving mine for nothing Though all the noise has ended now We can still feel its lasting sound Like when a mouth begins to whisper Its breath a soft reminder Some hands were open for you But their intent was different Their fingers charred and pointing And branding words beneath your skin While others withdrew Their palms unsure for holding They too, felt tied up at the wrists - Things done for fear and friendship - It was never your fault then - Your tiny hands were never meant - To have to handle so much weight But things are different now And some things you just can't forget I'm holding on to hoping You'll find a hand to guide you yet - This thread ties us together - No matter how far apart we get I hope you find your peace I hope you'll find strength to forgive Yourself as well as others And I hope those same things for myself I need to be reminded That bad deeds do not bad people make To do our best with what we're given - We have no fate but to live and make mistakes My hands have grown so tired "Put down whatever it is That you've been carrying around" The soft words spoken by a friend Please guard your heart, your lips, your fingers And lets speak gently with our breath And work to use our hands more wisely In whatever days we might have left I need to remember that not winning isn't always losing And I need to remember that some things aren't better left unsaid And I need to remember to cherish everything I'm given And I need to forget to focus on the storms that might be up ahead Take heart

This is where the rubber meets the road White knuckles, same shade of grey The dull hum of leaving And I've ever needed so much saving Arms outstretched, I can barely feel you on my fingertips And I hope that this is far enough Every single person in my life has let me down But I guess they were only returning the favor Barriers of steel, others less concrete There's glass between us, static in my ears All things blurred Retracing every step on these well worn paths The worst kind of pacing So much time spent staring at the reflections of things How many hours lost? Two rights don't make it right Every person has the capacity to say beautiful things To make beautiful things Yet there's nothing in my mouth but the stale taste of my own tongue Syllables rotting in my gums And I break everything I touch The leaves are changing, but this decay's not that beautiful I've come to hate the smell of all things familiar The landmarks of half-forgotten failures Many miles traveled with no distance gained A lifetime of moving on But I'm just not that strong And I need more peace than I let on The low fuel light's been glowing like an ember Maybe It'll burst into flames Maybe someday! And maybe I'll go up with it Sacrifice to survive But oh! What it would be like to thrive! Wipe the dust from my eyes These bags can't be unpacked Hawk and dove Always flinching "Slow and steady wins the race" Well, this is death by inches So many dead deer, and I'm left here Circling, like some kind of terrible vulture These houses still remain Now mostly empty Now mostly stripped of their memories These streets a harsh reminder The phenomenon of craving Can't stand all this waiting Sit and take it Grin and bear it I can't believe I saved my life for this Not locked in, yet here I stay "Maybe I'll break this circuit one day" There's no redemption quite like an empty car and an open road And I can feel myself wanting to leave again My life for yellow lines

The further into life you get The further you are from reaching your goals There's a staying of your hand and a stillness at your fingers Life isn't going quite as you had always hoped Believe me when I tell you that everything Doesn't always work out like you planned Along the way some strands are split Until the rope you once held to is snapped Make sure to keep your eyes on the horizon Or else you'll be lost in the storm of your days And anxiety grabs you And it pulls you under Gasping for air you will wish and wish you had learned how to swim There won't always be someone there to throw you a ring This is just a reminder Be careful of the let downs You waste your days waiting For opportunities to come and find you When you should Scream out, not because you're afraid of loss But because you're afraid you haven't lived Scream out, scream out, scream out!

As I walk down these dark and empty streets My feet only passing by my feet There's something lurking in the shadows that surround me Like my future it confuses, confounds me As the gravity of our bed pulls me home I'm glad I won't have to go it alone As long as I have you by my side I know I'll make it out My empress, my queen The color of these leaves shines a less vibrant hue My father, my king These buildings degrade at an alarming rate Without your care Barring your hammer The stencils on these walls sing of loneliness While the floors still creak the same I'm sorry I haven't called as much as I could I am the tree with no roots, I am Sorry I haven't written as much as I should I am the tree with no roots In her voice, I find comfort With you I find Home is where your heart is

I find it so strange to think that once we were in love Hiding naked beneath the sheets You were so beautiful Oh, how I was so afraid Laughing at our innocence And longing as it passed us by Now just the thought of her brings bile to my throat Her words could rot teeth You told me hundreds and thousands of times Just how much you would always need me And how you'd never ever leave me And I believed you But in the end it was you who proved me wrong Now as I gladly move along I pick myself up and find a way to come out stronger My life has been full of short stories And I'm longing for an epic I found one in the reeds Right there hidden were the seeds Now as we march out of these marshes We find ourselves both hand in hand We're taking steps towards our future While always learning from the past We'll find our way and make mistakes We'll find a way to make this last I'm sick of taking short walks down long roads And never getting anywhere at all I want to walk till my boots run bare Take the high road towards our golden years

I saw you standing in my door As you woke me from my rest Your shadow stretched across the floor Until your head lay on my chest A silhouette of who you were You nervously confessed Not quite understanding what I heard I tried desperately my best

You spoke softly, but with purpose I saw the tired in your face As you recounted me your nightmares And your need to leave this place And your struggles with the Sandman And your desperate search for grace Oh, how you longed for peaceful sleep I lied there, listening, half awake I cried two tears that night So big they filled up all the seas Now come and join me on this bed And we'll sail anywhere you please Please stay awake, at least a while longer It's getting dark now, but I'm not tired And though the wind is getting stronger I'll stay right here by your side We'll ride the waves from port to port We'll push more pins into your map Until we find a gentler harbor Far from where worms and beetles nap And we will use our words as anchors Build a house upon the land Hide from all the ghosts that haunt us Erase our footprints from the sand We'll place this ship inside a bottle Place the bottle on a shelf We'll stay awake a million mornings Count each golden sunrise towards our wealth And you will show your teeth for once As we toast your noble health Although I've never seen a smile more uncertain of itself With the warm breath from your nostril We'll write the prayers on the glass That we'll recite with loving kindness To every person as they pass But I know that you hate dreaming So for now, let's just sit here Stay awake at least till morning And lay to rest your every fear I want to find the warmth in your body Want to see the child in your eyes No alabaster effigy Nothing left in you to despise Because I really am afraid You'll be a man I never get to meet Don't be overcome by night just yet, my friend And don't succumb to sleep Please stay awake with me Please stay awake