Cables in the Cup Holder

[Verse 1] Four miles past the Pennsylvania line A constellation made of lightning cords Spills out of the console, bleached and intertwined Drowning out the rattling floorboards The boy is tucked behind foam-padded ears Drifting through a private, velvet space The middle row is thirty thousand light-years From the blue light painted on his face The hum of Goodyear rubber on the seams Is the only thing this rental van can say We packed a cooler full of summer dreams And plugged our silence in along the way [Pre-Chorus] You point a weathered finger at a billboard in the weeds An old minor-league outfield peeling clean Nobody moves, nobody sees Just thumbs across a five-inch pane of glass Watching our own shadows pass [Chorus] There are cables in the cup holder, wound up tight Feeding little universes through the night You’re staring down the highway with your hands across your knees Wondering how a family gets as quiet as the trees We’re going five hundred miles to watch a stitch across a ball While the white plastic wires build a sixty-watt wall Miles away from where we sit Running down the battery of it [Bridge] Is it safer on the inside of a screen? Is it easier to never have to say That you’re terrified of what the innings mean When the season starts to slip away? You bought three hats with Cincinnati red Still tagged and sitting on the rear-seat floor You wanted us to remember what you said Before we didn’t ride like this no more Before the gravel on the shoulder bites the wheel Before we lose the power to touch the things we feel [Verse 2] The dashboard clock turns seven-forty-two Bruised indigo is settling on the plains A sudden flash of diner amber shining through Reflects our three pale profiles in the panes The boy pulls down his headset just an inch To ask how far until the turn-off light You catch his eye, you do not flinch And offer him the window to the night [Pre-Chorus] For half a second, nothing's charging up The glowing blue retreats into the gray You drop a paper penny in the plastic cup And clear the tangled white away Just watching how the highway lines unroll Connecting point to point to keep us whole [Chorus] There were cables in the cup holder, wound up tight Feeding little universes through the night You’re staring down the highway with your hands across your knees Wondering how a family gets as quiet as the trees We’re going five hundred miles to watch a stitch across a ball While the white plastic wires build a sixty-watt wall Miles away from where we sit Running down the battery of it [Outro] Uncoil the line Unplug the seam Turn off the screen Let the highway speak Gravel on the shoulder Cables in the cup holder