I was on the sidewalk
And you were in a dream
You said you couldn't stand it these days
Your sensitivity
The city felt oppressive
The heat and the noise
And even at home you felt every unspoken voice
I don't know how, but I tell you'll be fine
And I set the table and you pour the wine
You always have been capable
Always have been kind
It isn't really your fault
Just the tenor of the times
You got a job and lost it
And they never told you why
And you can't seem to get past it
This ordinary lie
And they're saying this summer
Is the worst it's ever been
With the radio on
And they're talking

Another shooting
Foods creeping in the lowlands
And everybody's shouting
And I just hold your hand
And I say nothing
I say nothing at all
I don't think my voice matters really after all
I was raised to hear the curlews
I was raised to notice light
And I watch the little swallows
Delicate in their flight
I trail my hand down through the water
Of the familiar riverside
For hours in such silence, I lay beside
Terrified, for knowing in my time
For all the parts per million
For unstoppable design
How can you get over knowing all you know?
All the facts and the figures you learned years ago

I moved back to the city
I lost myself in you
Or in some kind of fiction
Or in some kind of truth
I let myself get cynical
I felt cold and bruised
And the facts never changed
And time only moves
And somewhere above the tree line
Silent just like you
The river never froze in
And footsteps break through
And somehow in my heart
Am I supposed to make do
With the fragments of the stars
The blue-white streetlights let through?
All the birds not calling
All the hot winds blow
I took your picture in the sunset
Smiling in the shadow
You and I, we are complicit
You and I were never blind
Now we're gonna live with it, our open eyes