parsing out the patterns in passing high beam lights play it back for me to prove you're right watch them fade into the distance to a point where you ascend strung along a cord, frayed at the ends you hung it up for the benefit of your friends who moved away decorate with the things you wouldn't say in a house you built with two-by-fours and bricks you laid by hand burn it to the ground to prove you can but i'm not really here nor there confused it with a crow in the crosshairs and everybody stops and stares yeah, they stop and stare stood tall like a sequoia, show my age on the inside and slip into a perfect place to hide and i set some expectations for some things that won't pan out cut the cord and learn to live without and it is forty-five degress the snow's all melted but the trees are still missing their leaves i saw you shivering you said what matters is what you wrote and not who wrote it i still live with what was said, but not who spoke it and so i'm writing a novel as if i had something new to say in some words that sounded pretty when i strung them together right it's not quite a tragedy, but the ending's not as concrete as it seems you really had it made, but you traded it in for something you'd always swore you hate

living a charmed existence can't say how i found my way out of your bedroom, turn the lights down low floating, i'll find my way home reminded me of nightmares that i swear i've had before when i wake up i won't recognize myself anymore and if i see how it happened i'll probably let you know that the golden glow of the traffic lights on friday nights is what wears me out squeezed in the empty space between your fingertips i guess you found a place to stay that's more than i can say for myself a slight of hand out of spite it's just not what i thought getting high with you would feel like it's just not that exciting when you're still feeling slighted but to your defense i can't hold it in no, when i can't hang it's like you're throwing out your back again and it's not that exciting when you're still feeling slighted squeezed in your brand new empty space on the corner of crooks and 13 squeezed in the empty space between your fingertips i guess you found a place to stay that's more than i can say for myself

been down and dejected still not coming off cool, calm, and collected and it's all downhill from here when the voices in your head line up with the ringing in your ears and if it's not on your radar like a subtle wave of sound then i would wait out the weekend until i cross it all out and so i stopped leaving the house and got caught up in the delusion that i've followed every thought down to its logical conclusion that i really can't complain i'm only old enough to recognize just how much i've aged and if it's not on your radar like a subtle wave of sound then i would wait out the weekend until i cross it all out and if it's not on your radar like a subtle wave of sound then i would wait out the weekend until i cross it all out

spin a summer spell tell them "run like hell, you're free to be who you want but you can't stay here!" it's a thankless task if you have to ask, you'll never know that's why i won't go there it's a couple blocks we don't have to walk call a car and drive off, and i'll meet you there because in dreams i'm dead in that hotel bed come collect me, i'm gone and i'm down atrocious, 'cuz we've been regressing to how we were when we were young with all of our soft spots exposed and i've been obsessing over what was said and done when will i feel calm and composed? (hey man, don't fuck this up!)

i'm burning holes in the fabric the last reminder of a broken bad habit while poring over a self-help book that says "you don't know what you've got while you have it" so are you willing and able to sell your youth for a seat at the table? there's a lifetime of traffic that you can trade for an out so you're unjustified in feeling ungrateful and now you're fucking up the words to the chorus and you'll be coming up for air when you're done and i finally realize that i'm not cut out for this so take back to the start so i've been taking cold showers when i get home at night cuz i just want to feel power over one thing in my life and i've been digging my nails into the seams of my clothes impulsive reaction, you know how it goes tighten my muscles, straighten my spine master my body and maybe master my mind (you've got a lot to learn before you figure it out, but we could meet halfway and maybe even it out) and now i'm fucking up the words to the chorus and i'll be coming up for air when i'm done and i finally realize that i'm not cut out for this so take me back to the start where you can call it a good thing, call it a draw call it by name, cuz you're still staring in awe at the sight of a scarecrow, split at the seams grasping for words, you'll understand what you mean when you say "out with the old guard, and in with your friends" it's the way that it goes, it's a means to an end taking my sweet time, i'll stare at the sun and i'll let the water run, i'll let the water run i'll let the water run, i'll let the water run i'll let the water run, i'll let the water run

sylvia, i know your secret's out it's the vice around your neck, it's all you ever talk about but if you let me be your confidant i'll keep it to myself with the years you building out your own personal hell so you set the scene in cinematic hues yeah, when you're used to feeling used you let a softer voice cut through and start dreading everyone that you've committed yourself to and it seems like opting out might be the safest thing to do and if you stick to the script as an easy way out then i would come up with new ways of letting you down to the ground, where i'll stand with my head in the sand just let me sleep through all of my alarms again and so i caught you at the start of something new taking stock of what you got under the white hot moon knowing better than to speak in absolutes by the time you turned your back on singing the same old tired tunes with a fear of missing out because everything that happens seems to happen somewhere else without you, without you i wanna know what that's like it's like i don't even have it i wanna feel what you felt don't wanna just understand it i wanna stand where you stood i wanna reach out and grab it i wanna feel what you felt don't wanna just understand it but that's an easy way out and i will come up with new ways of letting you down to the ground, where i'll stand with my head in the sand just let me sleep through all of my alarms again

sometimes when i drive by myself at night i forget how the silence feels, drift too close to the eighteen-wheel and when i lie by myself at night i mouth the words to a cover song, and ask a crowd to sing along and there are days where i feel flattened and there are weeks where decades happen (you get up, get to work, dig your grave!) well, the storm came and went everything's still the same (you get up, get to work, dig your grave!) well, the storm came and went some things never change (you get up, get to work, dig your grave!) well, the storm came and went everything's still the same and most days i wake up in the dead of night head for where i don't see the sun drown it out with flourescent hum and sometimes when i think i can go it alone i'll overshoot and come back around try again, repeat in monotone and there are days where i feel flattened and there are weeks where decades happen (you get up, get to work, dig your grave!) well, the storm came and went everything's still the same (you get up, get to work, dig your grave!) well, the storm came and went some things never change (you get up, get to work, dig your grave!) well, the storm came and went everything's still the same

scratched off a lottery ticket thought maybe today was my lucky day the sun only shines if you want it to and maybe for once, something's going my way pace around the parking lot nothing distracts me when i'm lost in thought pace around the parking lot nothing distracts me, no it's not a lot you said you want to be sedated every time you come around you don't know quite what that means but you like the way it sounds and so i'll call you from an altered state a great beginning to a blank slate and all along, we were falling apart but you can't burn out if you were never on fire to start

felt it like a stitch in your side high time to swallow my pride and admit i was along for the ride like sea glass washing up with the high tide just trying to keep up with the times you wanna go, but don't really wanna know what it's like on the other side, on the other side and so you tried to cut it off at the root but the stem's been infected with someone else's truth and it came off kinda callous and rude, it came off kinda callous and rude you said you tried it once, and made a mess of yourself and just like the full moon it was just a phase you were going through (it just takes a little time to come around, it just takes a little time to come around) the work week's not as long as it seems been finding comfort in that same routine but why can't i remember my dreams from long nights catching up on sleep? is there a consolation prize for wandering home with bloodshot eyes just to tell you i've been living a lie? to tell you i've been living a lie? i said i tried that once, and made a mess of myself and just like the full moon, was just a phase i was going through (it just takes a little time to come around) well i don't want to remember what was said (it just takes a little time to come around) well i don't want to remember (it just takes a little time to come around) well i don't want to remember what was said (it just takes a little time to come around) i don't want to remember i hope that someone writes a song about you and i hope it gets stuck in your head, guess i never knew enough about you to make up for the shit that i said i hope that someone writes a song about you because i never will, because i never will a catalyst, a chemical reaction paralyzed from the waist down you slam the brakes before i start the engine i'm on my own now

took the time to wait it out holding poison in the mouth so you wrote it wretched, wrote it vile throwing flowers in the aisles then you went on stage with a broken string, still looked pretty when you sang some song you heard on the radio like six or seven years ago kissing hissing serpent's tongues, the dream is dead, your song's been sung took a shortcut straight to hell i'll meet you there, i've poisoned the well well, did you get just what you wanted? is it everything you thought it would be? so i took my chance to let it out spewing poison from my mouth but i can't remember what i got, quick to ripe and quick to rot fucked around a time or too, wasted all my time with you and took the first out i could see, falling fast by twenty-three kissing hissing serpent's tongues, the dream is dead, your song's been sung took a shortcut straight to hell i'll meet you there, i've poisoned the well but there's a disconnect between who i am and who i'm trying to be and the answer's plain to see when it's everything you thought it would be (instrumental) spinning out on highway one the engine's dead, your trip is done took a shortcut straight to hell i'll meet you there, i've poisoned the well kissing hissing serpent's tongues, the dream is dead, your song's been sung took a shortcut straight to hell i'll meet you there, i've poisoned the well spinning out on highway one the engine's dead, your trip is done took a shortcut straight to hell i'll meet you there, i've poisoned the well