The Margins of the Page

[Intro]
[Verse]
Rain is drumming on the tin
Where the cedar walls get thin
Dusty light is filtering in
Across my muddy boots
I’m digging through the crates
Old porcelain and plates
Wondering if it’s too late
To find my tangled roots
Twenty-eight and feeling small
Like I’m headed for a stall
Waiting for the world to call
And tell me where to go
Then I saw the box of oak
Hiding in the chimney smoke
Like a secret that she spoke
A long, long time ago
[Pre-Chorus]
I pulled the latch and let it fly
With a heavy, lonesome sigh
And the smell of cinnamon and rye
Filled up the empty air
I saw her cursive, looping high
Underneath the stormy sky
And I started to realize why
She kept the secrets there
[Chorus]
It wasn’t just the flour
Or the sugar in the tin
It was how to find the power
When the winter’s blowing in
Read between the lines
In the margins of the page
She was teaching me to bloom
Long before I reached this age
Yeah, she left the light on
In the margins of the page
[Verse]
Next to grandma’s biscuit dough
She wrote “learn to let it go”
“If you work the heart too hard
The spirit won’t ever rise”
By the summer berry jam
She wrote “know just who I am”
“Don’t you give a single damn
For the judgment in their eyes”
I’m tracing every letter now
With a sweat-drop on my brow
Finally understanding how
To make the bitter sweet
It’s a map for every turn
For the bridges that I burn
Every lesson left to learn
Is sitting at my feet
[Chorus]
It wasn’t just the flour
Or the sugar in the tin
It was how to find the power
When the winter’s blowing in
Read between the lines
In the margins of the page
She was teaching me to bloom
Long before I reached this age
Yeah, she left the light on
In the margins of the page
[Bridge]
Pedal steel is crying low
Like she’s putting on a show
In the rafters where the swallows go
When the evening starts to fall
She knew I’d be standing here
In my twenty-eighth year
Sorting through the doubt and fear
Inside this barn-wood wall
[Verse]
I’m folding up the apron strings
And the comfort that it brings
I can hear the way she sings
In the rhythm of the rain
I’ll take the box back to the house
Quiet as a meadow mouse
Leaving all the ghosts to browse
The shadows and the stain
I’m finally feeling steady now
Like a heavy, rusted plow
Making a silent, holy vow
To keep the fire bright
I’ve got the wisdom in my hand
Moving across the land
Everything is looking grand
In this golden, dusty light
[Chorus]
It wasn’t just the flour
Or the sugar in the tin
It was how to find the power
When the winter’s blowing in
Read between the lines
In the margins of the page
She was teaching me to bloom
Long before I reached this age
Yeah, she left the light on
In the margins of the page
[Post-Chorus]
In the margins
Of the page
Yeah, she taught me
How to bloom
In the margins
Of the page
[Outro]