I Will Be Grateful For This Day (Companion Version)

I had a girl I knew
She grew, became a woman now
I think that she teaches
At one of the schools downtown
We used to roll the windows down
And play the music loud
Smoking out in her car
Lost in west Omaha
And we'd get drunk and kiss
Our bodies twist like shoelaces

And we never came untied
I guess you were just my type
You know that summer never stopped
I still pretend I'm there
The band's in the living room
The neighbors, they never cared
So when I sat behind the drumset
Your heartbeat's what I tried to play
But with the kick and snare so careless, not in time
So you got ahead of me

And I guess I'm still dragging behind
I had a friend who changed his name
But couldn't change himself
Never quite figured out
How to deal with what life had dealt
He put a needle in his arm to calm his handsome hell
Who would've imagined it
Could've worked out so well?
Now he's a shape that moves
Like echoes through my empty room

And there's a voice that speaks
Like someone's right behind me
I turned around and found exactly what you would expect
The clothes I left on my floor
The papers piled on my desk
But where the ink is wet, the cause, effects
What's meant by it?
The story that is incomplete
The picture's left unfinished
So I am writing my own ending

I let my pen bleed black or blue
And I will color in the meaning
It will be gold and green and shrewd
And I'll learn to love my new discovered proof
I'll be grateful for this day
I will be grateful for each day to come