Nine

I recall once on the church steps When I moved to kiss your chest How we paid such close attention To each sweet and stuttered breath I should've stopped to paint our picture Captured honest, pure affection Just to document the difference Between attraction and connection I can see all of my friends And I break into empty buildings When the coast was clear With backpacks full of beer We'd throw our bottles from the rooftops At this city, it looked endless Guess I still don't see the difference Between real purpose and that urgent adolescence And I remember, in a basement Sharing sweat with all these stranger boys and girls "We'll change the world," we sang "We'll change the world" But nothing seems to change And they say none of them will listen But I still see much more power in that basement Than in heartless politicians If we get beaten by this winter If we get strangled by regret Just let our love of life and tension Gasp in sweet and stuttered breaths And have them lay us in a basement Smash some bottles on the ground And say we couldn't tell the difference Between the feeling and the sound Remember not our faulty pieces Remember not our rusted parts It's not the petty imperfections that define us But the way we hold our hearts And the way we hold our heads I hope they write your names beside mine On my gravestone when I'm dead And when we are dead, let our voices carry on To find a better song To find a better song and sing along Sing along