La Dispute - Scenes From Highways 1981-2009 Lyrics
Funny what you think of after a collapseWhile lying in the dirt the first thing that comes back is never quite what you'd have guessedAnd if you could have, you probably would've said you'd check if all your limbs were intact still andthen try to get outWe played house with the neighbors in their basementSister made me husband she was older so I did her biddingI remember once their dad came in said, "You think this is bad?You don't know the half." And he laughed.It's funny what things come backThe first things you seeHow he sort of smiled like it's only a joke but he was lyingThere was something else inside of his eyesAll those secrets people tell to little childrenAre warnings that they give themLike, "Look, I'm unhappy. Please don't make the same mistake as me."Why are those old worn out jokes on married life told at toasts at receptions still?How does it never occur how often couples get burned and end uncertain in Splitsville?Funny what you think of in the wreckage, lying there in the dirt and the dust and the glassHow you're suddenly somewhere, in the desert, in the nighttime, and it's getting close to ChristmasAnd then her and that movie voice she uses when she reads,"Welcome to the Land of Enchantment" from a highway signAnd it's late so you take the next exitWhen that trip ended we came back the rent was due I was joblessI guess in retrospect I should've sensed decayThen that day, how you said, "I just don't know" and I promisedWe'd rearrange things to fix the mess I'd made hereBut I guess in the end we just moved furniture around 3XBut I guess in the end it sort of feels like every day it's harder to stay happy where you areThere are all these ways to look through the fence into your neighbor's yardWhy even risk it? It's safer to stay distantWhen it's so hard now to just be contentBecause there's always something elseNow I'm proposing my own toast, composing my own joke for those married menMaybe I'm miserable, I'd rather run for mayor in Splitsville than suffer your jokes again6. 357. Stay Happy ThereIf I could play back every moment to you nowSpent lovesick and swollen onMornings mincing garlic on the counter by the sinkIf I could hit the instant replay on only every good dayWould any of it catch you by surprise?When you say, "something is missing now"That's what came back to meNormal mornings like that set the knife down and forget where I'd left itMaking breakfastPut coffee on the stove then scour every counter for the knifeDon't be shyDon't be kindSomewhere snow collects and bends the boughs of pinesBut doesn't it seem a bit wasteful to youTo throw away all of the time we spent perfecting our love in close quarters and confines?Isn't it wasteful?And I am terrified that it doesn't feel painful to me yetSomewhere on top of the high rise there's a woman on the edge of a building at the ledgeAnd traffics backing up on 35It's alrightI will fix whatever is not the sweetness in your eyesJust sit downPleaseSit downHereAt the table and we'll talkSomewhere televisions light up in the nightI know things weren't rightMaybe we were never cut out for the Midwest lifeMaybe we'd have done much better on a coastThere are certain things I doubt we'll ever knowI know you were getting tired of my drinkingI guess I was never cut out for the coke sceneYou were worried I would end up like your father andTired of the smoke and somewhere the wind blowsSomewhere a storm touches down north in HudsonvilleSomewhere the coffee starts to boil on the stove andSomewhere the wind blowsSomewhere the river levels finally getting lowSomewhere I'm up past dawn tillSomewhere you live here stillSomewhere you're already goneSomewhere a radio is playing in a living roomSays the city lacks the funds to fix the bridgeSomewhere the deer are overrun so they're introducing wolves back on the ridgeAnd from here in the kitchenI can hear the neighbors in the alley hanging linensAnd the men collect the trash bins in the streetYou're speaking to me but I can't understand youThe coffee is burning andAll of the times that we spentThat road trip out westThrough desert for the rest stops the kitsch we both collectThat winter the whole weekend we huddled by the stoveThe cabin I had rentedThe unexpected snowThat visit for ChristmasOn television bingesWe'll see friends in BrooklynDrive south to RichmondThere's traffic on the bridgeA woman on the ledgeAnd everywhere the wind
