Verse 1 You bought that ugly blue cup at a roadside place in June With a painted yellow rooster and a crack shaped like the moon I said, “Darling, it’s atrocious” you said, “That’s why it came with me” Now it sits beside the window like some minor deity Verse 2 We were younger in the kitchen we were louder in those days You could turn a missing teaspoon into seventeen complaints I could make a little kingdom out of every wounded pride Then we’d sleep like two republics with a border down the side Chorus Oh, the things that get remembered aren’t the things we thought they’d be Not the roses, not the speeches not the grand photography Just a rooster on a coffee cup a coat left on a chair And somebody saying, “Take mine” when the cold gets in the air Verse 3 Once in November, somewhere southward, we got lost beyond the lake You blamed the folded paper map I blamed every turn you’d make Then the rain came down in buckets and the engine made a sound You laughed until you scared me then we pushed the damn thing out Verse 4 Later underneath a service light with grease across your sleeve You said, “I know you’re mad at me” I said, “I haven’t tried to leave” And neither one was sorry not in any useful way But you gave me half your sandwich and I gave you yesterday Chorus Oh, the things that get remembered aren’t the things we thought they’d be Not the roses, not the speeches not the grand photography Just your hand across the dashboard when the tires start to slide And the funny little bargains that keep two fools side by side Bridge There were years I thought I knew you like a house I’d memorized Every staircase, every window every place the daylight hides Then you’d say some strange small sentence and the walls would all move back And I’d find another hallway I had somehow never mapped Verse 5 Now the cup has lost its handle and the rooster’s nearly gone You still drink from it on Sundays like there’s nothing going on I could buy you something better I have threatened to for years But I think I’d miss that rooster if he finally disappeared Final Chorus So the things that get remembered aren’t the things we thought they’d be They’re the scraps we kept returning to without a guarantee A blue cup by the window a wet coat on the stair And somebody still beside you when you turn and find them there Outro You bought that ugly blue cup at a roadside place in June There’s a crack across the rooster now and another through the moon
