Marginalia

[Intro]
[Verse]
The paint is peeling on the floor
Beside the rusted screen-door
I found a book with leather bound
Half-buried in the frozen ground
The dust is dancing in the light
Before the coming of the night
[Verse]
Your shaky hand in faded blue
A map of everything you knew
The cedar waxwings in the pine
The way the winter starts to shine
You wrote about the morning frost
And every single thing we lost
[Chorus]
The swallows take a decade to return
To find the eaves where they were born
There are lessons that I had to learn
In the silence of a Sunday morn
You left the words inside the lines
The secrets that you never said
Between the birches and the pines
I’m reading everything you read
[Post-Chorus]
Wait for the wings
Whatever time brings
The meadow still sings
The memory clings
[Verse]
A note beside a coffee stain
About the coming of the rain
You missed the geese in ninety-four
And watched the shadows cross the floor
An unspoken goodbye to the sun
Before the day was even done
[Chorus]
The swallows take a decade to return
To find the eaves where they were born
There are lessons that I had to learn
In the silence of a Sunday morn
You left the words inside the lines
The secrets that you never said
Between the birches and the pines
I’m reading everything you read
[Bridge]
The barn is leaning to the west
An empty house, an empty nest
But in the margins I can see
The man you wanted me to be
The ink is dry, the paper’s thin
But this is where we both begin
[Instrumental]
[Chorus]
The swallows take a decade to return
To find the eaves where they were born
There are lessons that I had to learn
In the silence of a Sunday morn
You left the words inside the lines
The secrets that you never said
Between the birches and the pines
I’m reading everything you read
[Breakdown]
Soft light on the page
An old, golden age
The birds fly away
But I’m here to stay
[Outro]