Marginalia

[Intro]
[Verse]
Dust motes dance in the morning light
Steam on the beam, the vibe is right
Cracking the spine, a design so fine
Faint hint of mint on a vintage print
Old man Jenkins walks through the door
Searching for peace on the bottom floor
He skims the theology, looking for why
With a heavy heart and a clouded eye
He touches the leather, feels the grain
A quiet shelter from the pouring rain
He finds a note in the back of the book
Giving the past a second look
[Hook]
Lives in the margins, ink on the page
Wisdom of youth and the grief of age
We trade in the secrets that people keep
City stays quiet, fast asleep
Flip through the chapters, find what you lost
Counting the pages and weighing the cost
[Verse]
Found a dried rose in a book of Keats
Pressed between stanzas of bitter sweets
A ticket stub from a '94 show
To a girl whose name I’ll never know
The college kid with the frantic pen
Underlining 'truth' again and again
He’s building a world in a narrow aisle
Hiding his fear with a crooked smile
He drops a receipt for a lonely meal
Checking the pulse, how he feel
Smudged ink from a tear that fell
A story that he will never tell
[Hook]
Lives in the margins, ink on the page
Wisdom of youth and the grief of age
We trade in the secrets that people keep
City stays quiet, fast asleep
Flip through the chapters, find what you lost
Counting the pages and weighing the cost
[Bridge]
Paperback dreams and hardcover lies
Seen through the lens of a thousand eyes
The ink might fade but the spirit stays
Lost in the labyrinth, caught in the haze
[Verse]
I’m the curator of the unspoken
Mending the bindings of the broken
A woman comes in for a cookbook find
Leaving her sorrows and stress behind
She breathes in the paper, the glue, the wood
Understanding life like she never could
We’re all just a draft in a cosmic stack
Once you go deep, there’s no turning back
The shelves are whispering secrets now
Wiping the sweat from a weary brow
Each volume carries a soul inside
Nowhere for the ghosts to hide
[Hook]
Lives in the margins, ink on the page
Wisdom of youth and the grief of age
We trade in the secrets that people keep
City stays quiet, fast asleep
Flip through the chapters, find what you lost
Counting the pages and weighing the cost
[Outro]