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Lyrics

53 Steps

…I’m Going With You

Lamplight

The Sky Won’t Fall Down

53 Steps

All the water colored Christmas Carol cards
Adorn the porcelain sides of plaster walls
I watch you paint my dreams (And how)
And speak your name a bit too loud
Then chase the silence down my empty halls

I’ve never told you any more than this
I’m sixteen hours late to meet your kiss
No time is right to prove you wrong
No words persist to last that long
My truest aim is solely yours to miss

Down the ladder backward, a silhouette full grown
With candlepower to light most any home away from home
Sum it up in six words, an eloquence unknown to me beside you
In my five square miles of home

While the purple bugs crawl etched upon your stone
My busy signals scurry from your phone
The porcelain sinks and shower stalls
Still dripping ink define four walls
The touch I feel is very much my own

Down the ladder…

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…I’m Going With You

I never could say the things that I’m feeling
Now that feeling is all around
I catch your scent and it sends me reeling
And all of my ceilings come crashing down

Believe it or not I’m going with you
Whether or not you choose to go
Straight to the top, I nearly missed you
Dragging my feet, I’m moving too slow

Shuffle on down, check your connections
Make your selections, right on time
I lose my frown, change your direction
Drive like the dickens, stop on a dime

Believe it or not…

It makes no sense to stop what I’m doing
Sidestep the ruin that looms ahead
But you’re on the fence, trouble’s brewing
Take you on back to the house instead

Believe it or not…

Knock down the walls that stood in your way
Say what you will but I won’t stay
When everything new I am throwing away
All for you…

Believe it or not…

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Lamplight

Midnight, picking daisies in the moonlight
Skipping rocks behind your shadow
Letting go a bit too soon
The lamplight is not enough to trust my eyesight
If I wake to feel you breathing
Like a lazy afternoon

Was that your car that passed me by?
Or is it just the dust that makes me cry?

Crack the doors, trip down the hall
You’re only slipping until you fall
Dim the lights and wait for your call
You’re only slipping until you fall

Halftime, would you tug upon my lifeline
If you see me starting under
And I forget to hold my breath
Red wine pushes me towards the frontline
With your sights still trained upon me
And my fear that’s worse than death

Was that your town that passed me by?
It’s just the dust that makes me cry

Crack the doors…

Now the lamplight glows softly in the damp night
Like the one who waits to meet me
And sing my favorite tune
Midnight, pushing daisies in the moonlight
Planting rocks to mark the shadows
We’re approaching all too soon

Is that your time that’s passed me by?
It’s just the dust that makes me cry

Crack the doors…

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Last Yesterday

You get your way when you want a chase
You get your way when you stand alone
If you wanna go just name the place
Pitch your phone and I can’t stay home

You paint it on but you change your clothes
You turn away when I see your face
If you give a damn, well it never shows
Hit your pace and I can’t erase

The clues you give will lead me on
And point me every which way
Like the time we spend, so dead and gone,
Since I saw you last yesterday

I came for you but you don’t believe
I came for you as you hit the door
Find the one and you stay for free
I’d say what for if I knew what for

Paint your pictures, ride your horses
Never stop in borrowed form
As I walk right by your house, of course
It’s got to serve some purpose for you

You get your way when you want a chase
You get your way till I stand alone
You wanna go, would you save your face

You get your way and you get your way…

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Never So Real

Are you half asleep when I’m half awake?
Does it depend upon which half you fake?
I’m crawling underneath my bed
And almost wished for you instead
The truth as I remember it
Has lost so much appeal
Try my best it’s gonna never seem so real

I look so far ahead sometimes
That yesterdays are all I see
The trouble with these days I find
They disappear in spite of me
Maybe my tomorrows
Were just your half of the deal
Either way it’s gonna never seem so real

If you’ve found the perfect distance
You can keep it for yourself
As if distance was the best that you can do
Now I think I see the difference
When I’m standing by myself
It never seemed so perfect, save for you

When the baby cries inside your head
Beneath your pillow, in his bed
I’m half awake, you’re half asleep
And all you left is mine to keep

Grab the bedpost, dreaming
Wake up, reinvent the wheel
Try your best it’s gonna never seem so real

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Open Hands

Your shape, still drifting in the darkness,
Surfaces to slowly take my hand
And lead me through the darkness,
A quiet place you know I understand
You never speak so slowly
Never pause to help me understand
You just appear in darkness
Bow my head beneath your open hands

Ask me once, the question fades
I’ve never been completely in the know
Ask me twice, I’ll draw the shades
Let me help you help me let it show
You never speak so slowly
Never pause to help me understand
You just appear in darkness
Bow my head beneath your open hands

Always seem to recover slowly
Never seem to laugh at our mistakes
Half the time but now you’ve told me
Twice the distance, not to wait
Your darkest pants can’t hide the secret
The truth is mostly what’s not there to see
I still reach for your hand and sometimes
Hear your voice still echo deep in me

Lightly bearded, breathing down
Staring at you twenty feet below
Silver earrings stare right back
Can’t you give me someplace else to go?
You never speak so slowly
Never pause to help me understand
You just appear in darkness
Bow my head beneath you open
Ever shifting, drifting, falling
Buried somewhere, right there in the sand
I could fill your empty darkness
With my ever willing open hands

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Sarah with an h

On my belly in the basement, through the window of your room
I can almost reach the doorknob with the handle of this broom
But you’re stuck outside the basement and you cannot find your keys
So I’m crawling through the window and I’m tearing up my knees
And as sure as you rise to keep the peace, I fall to pieces at your feet

Will I drive you to the airport or did I misunderstand?
Am I stuck inside your carport with your sweater in my hand?
If you look to see what’s thawing in this sleeping bag of ice
You might see what’s left to see there, cause it’s really very nice
And as sure as you rise to keep the peace, I fall to pieces at your feet

You’ll soon be swimming in some distant ocean
I’ll be stranded on my local shore
My head brimming with some fantastic notion
And two years peaceful like before…

Now that burn upon your leg, wrapped in gauze, very tender still
To touch if you’re not careful and you brush it with your hand
Is a silent, sweet decay, like my picture on your window sill
So far gone today that I may never understand
That this is gonna take some time, but it’s the one thing that you have now
So try and hold the line till you make it overland
And when you’re safe and dry in some long-forgotten basement
Crawl through your own window, you don’t need me as your man
And as sure as you rise to keep the peace, I fall to pieces at your feet

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The Sky Won’t Fall Down

The world is still turning and the sky won’t fall down
But the dreams that I shared with you lie in pieces on the ground
What happened to our love? Now your happiness is sad
Was it time spent in vain or just good loving gone bad?

I don’t know all about myself, I do admit that’s true
But the things that I see in me, I just can’t find in you

Just a child, that’s all I am…why can’t you be too?
The rest will come so quickly when our innocence is through
Part of me says “just hold on and see what the future brings”
But if I hesitate today, will I lose tomorrow’s dreams?

I don’t know all about myself, I do admit that’s true
But the things that I see in me, I just can’t find in you

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