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