Saint Christopher
This highway ends as highways always do
There's no denying that I'm passing by the exit used to bring me home to you
We've all lost and found love by now a time or two
It's just that I have never lost the love of somebody quite the same as you
Just make it tragic and I'll go – Sweet Juliet to my hopeless Romeo
You'll be fine someday, I'm sure
And I've lost so many things, what's one more?
What need have I for Saint Christopher? I've got your picture in my mind
Decorate the dash with souvenirs of loving you and leaving you behind
The passing scenery sometimes takes me, the way you used to
Sun going down behind me, you in your town behind me – I was only ever passing through
Just make it tragic and I'll go – Sweet Juliet to your hopeless Romeo
I'll be fine someday, I'm sure
And you've lost so many things, what's one more?
Late night on the highway, in the middle of nowhere, living in a little pool of headlight
I talk to you like you're still inside me, you'd be sleeping in the seat beside me – I'd be
Taking you home
Taking you home
Hoping I could stay a while before I roam
Just make it tragic and I'll go – Sweet Juliet, I am your hopeless Romeo
We'll be fine someday, I'm sure
And we've lost so many things, we've lost so many things, what's one more?
What need have I for Saint Christopher? I've got your picture
What need have I for Saint Christopher?
Sun going down behind me, you in your town behind me.
Oh, Saint Christopher, Oh – Saint Christopher
Take me home
Habit
Couldn't stand the house without you so I hit the road
The walls do too much talking when I'm here alone
God, give me open highway and a tank of gas
'Cause I can't feel the lonely, in the towns I'm whipping past
I will go on driving through this storm
I know I've got your memory, and your memory keeps me warm
I will go on driving through the night
'Cause I can't live one day here without my light
For one year, I could still hear your sounds round every corner
And for two more I swore, I saw your face in every crowd
But oh, I think the habit of making you happy will last more years than I can count
Call it act of science, call it act of God
All I hear's the calling of the hole where my soul got lost
But I remember you in all your best
And I'll live on, knowing I held on to you until the end
But then, laying my head down in our bed felt a little too hard
So I just took to sleeping in the car
I know that what I'm searching for is gone
Still, I don't like to stop moving for too long
For one year, I could still hear your sounds round every corner
And for two more I swore, I saw your face in every crowd
But oh, I think the habit of making you happy will live more years than I can count
You can't out-drive the fire inside that burned up the life in me
It turns the food to powder on my tongue
And tears, they are just nothing
And tears, the just don't come
Couldn't stand the house without you so I hit the road
I know I've got your memory, and your memory holds back the cold
And I remember you in all your best
I remember your bright smile shining in the photos in that white wedding dress
So call it act of science, call it act of God
Me, I'll just be sleeping in the car
Words For This
You can feel the miles beneath your tires on these strange streets
You can feel a lifetime of wandering in your heart now, taking to your feet
You can chase the love of a beauty that led you far from home
You can reach out your hands to the ones around you, and feel a little less alone
We both knew there were not words for this
That the story would play the way that this heart's pain would have it live
We both knew that the question was so much more than miles
Still there are nights that I would die for that sweet smile
But Mama ain't nothing but a dark distant shoreline, and Papa ain't nothing but an old rolling stone
And I could search the world for an answer forever, but I know I'd only wind up alone
But I've got a better song in me yet, and world full of rhymes in my head
I'm surprised by the ones who didn't stick it out, and I'm amazed by the ones who did
There are days I feel afraid of everything
There are days I feel the peace that only the rising sun can bring
There are days this wood and string just sing beneath my hands
There are days I can feel like a lost soul wandering, in a lonely land
I left a piece of me back east, I left a piece in Cabbagetown
I left a piece up north in a cold steel valley, a piece in Beantown
So if you spread me through those pieces, don't think my heart can stretch that wide
But if the answer is to forget you, I will not choose to loose those lines
But Mama ain't nothing but a dark distant shoreline, and Papa ain't nothing but an old rolling stone
And I could search the world for an answer forever, but I know I'd only wind up alone
But I've got a better song in me yet, and world full of rhymes in my head
I'm surprised by the ones who didn't stick it out, and I'm amazed by the ones who did
There was no way to mark your passing, or to name the things I'd miss
We both know now: there are not words for this
But there's not one moment I forgot you, there's not one moment that I doubt you
Years go by and I'm still trying to learn, who I am without you
You can feel the miles beneath your tires on these strange streets
You can feel a lifetime of wandering in your soul now, taking to your feet
But I am the boy who built this boat, and I'm the boy that sailed it
I am the one who bid the storm clouds roll – yes, I'm the one that hailed it
You can spread me through those pieces, I don't think my heart can stretch that wide
But if the answer is to forget you, I will not choose to loose those lines
To loose those lines
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Oh Heart, Oh Highway
In a crumbling empire that starts at the pavement,
and the tall grey spires, and the big blue sky
There's a faint fading signal – though I've tried to save it –
from your heart to mine, across these million miles
Now, I don't know how it happened, and I guess I never will
How we draw these lines, but I think of you still, sometimes – and
Me, I like to drive, while everyone is sleeping
I like to feel you breathing, and feel your life in mine
'Cause somehow my city got haunted
And somehow the living got hard
As all of the things that I'd come for
One by one became things that I'd lost
So I'll rejoin the wallflowers, and the misfits, and love's wronged
I'll quit writing you letters and go back to writing songs
I guess it just took all these years to get tired of running strong
'Cause somehow, in this moving, came the peace for which I've longed
And some nights, under bright lights, a sweet and open heart
will find your arms for twenty four hours – and I don't know
If I was smitten, with you or with your city
But that goodbye sure did feel like a pity
'Cause somehow my city got haunted
And somehow the living got hard
As all of the things that I'd hoped for
One by one became things that I'd lost
Oh heart, oh highway – I would have missed all this if you had not denied me
Oh heart, oh highway– I would have missed all this if you had seen things my way
Oh heart, oh highway
Oh heart, oh highway
In a crumbling empire that starts at the pavement
There's a weak fading signal – though I have tried to save it, darlin'
I have held you to me, traveling all these miles across
And I have held your hand, while loving you became something I'd lost
Oh heart, oh highway
Sunrise
Block out the harsh light of day, I am not ready to blink
'Cause we spent the whole night laying bare all the weird things we think
And I don't presume to assume what this will come to mean
But I know I am rich in so many things that I wish I could feel
But I feel like I could talk all night to you
And if you're not going to stop my mouth, that's exactly what I'll do
I'll do it gladly – I think you're lovely
And it's been some time since I've seen sunrise above me
See, I've got these things that I need to feel free from, things that need put in the ground
So, sometimes I wake up on airplanes and can't remember where I'm bound
Sometimes I wake up in strange beds and don't know where I am
Sometimes I wake up in my room, dreaming the weight of where I have been
But I feel like I could talk all night to you
And if you're not going to stop my tongue, that's exactly what I'll do
I'll do it gladly – I think you're lovely
And it's been some time since I've seen sunrise above me
I can measure the space between our faces in inches, the road that I drove here in miles
I can measure each moment that's passed, since I caught that smile
I can measure the hours that remain, 'til my train pulls out again
But I can't measure the weight of the part of my heart I will leave in New York, I will leave in Boston
But I feel like I could talk all night to you
And if you're not going to stop my mouth, that's exactly what I'll do
I'll do it gladly – I think you're lovely
And it's been some time since I've seen sunrise above me
Horizon
The sky was low and grey, the way the island sky should be
And the spray paint on the rock face said "Justin + Justine"
The land was rolling by you, but your eyes were on the dash
Fixed on instruments to keep your mind from fixing on the past
You've been chasing that horizon, letting slip out of your mind
That horizons are illusions, water never meets the sky
You've been tilting at those windmills, taking swings at monsters right behind your eyes
But the past will always be the past, my love
Chose wisely what you carry, you can only take so much
Just leave behind the parts that tore you up
I never meant to disappoint you or forget the things you told
It's just that when the house is empty, it starts to feel so cold
Your evidence surrounds me, it's threatening to drown me
And the people all around me, once looked but never found me
Don't you think I know I've lost it?
Fell short of that bright promise – I know I did
But the past will always be the past, my love
Chose wisely what you carry, you can only take so much
Just leave behind the parts that tore you up
Thirty years of losing wonder, fifteen years of losing faith
Seems like nothing faced with eighty years of life lived in that grace
I hope that you were happy, and I think probably you were
And, I promise, I'll do better with my days left on this earth
The island sky was grey, the way the island sky should be
And the spray paint on the rock face said "Luke 20:13"
The land rolled down the water to the ships that sailed no more
Where I left you sleeping soundly, with a view down from the shore
(You said) The past will always be the past, my love
Chose wisely what you carry, you can only take so much
Just leave behind the parts that tore you up
You've been chasing that horizon, you've been running for some time
But horizons are illusions, water never meets the sky
Fell short of that bright promise – but I know you tried
The Airport Song
You got the hang of changing landscapes
You got the hang of these straight city lines
You got the hang of unfamiliar places
And you got the hang of lonely, late-night highway drives
But it's true you know
See me as brave don't call me broken
I have proved it so
Before these words were ever spoken, we know
You can call me from the airport, you can call me from the road
I might just drive out to meet you, oh, I just might brave the cold
You can call out from your city, I can call out here from mine
And if I can just loose these locks, Lord only knows what we will find
Lord only know what we will find
I'll be here, hugging the shoreline
It's westbound by the morning, there'll be open sea by night
But don't you fear, you'll always be mine
The sun sets on a photograph that I keep close to sight
But it's true you know
See me as brave, don't call me broken
I have proved it so
I must admit that I've been hoping you'd show
You can call me from the airport, you can call me from the road
I might just drive out to meet you, oh, I just might bring you home
You can call out from your city, I can call out here from mine
And if I can just loose these locks, Lord only knows what we will find
Lord only know what we will find
You got the hang of living nowhere
And you got the hang of late night drives alone
But I'll be here, hugging the shoreline, baby
You can call me from the road |
