[Verse 1] They dressed him like a Sunday They combed what hair he had They put a coin where custom said And they called the ending sad I stood there counting buttons I stood there counting lies A funeral is a kind of drawer Where a family learns to hide The preacher spoke of mercy The neighbors spoke of rest Nobody spoke the second life Folded up against his chest [Pre-Chorus] Not the watch Not the ring Not the prayer they printed neat Look under Look closer Name the thing beneath the sheet [Chorus] What they buried with him Was never only him What they buried with him Was a year they would not name If the corpse road is for carrying Then it carried more than skin What they buried with him Is still walking in the living [Verse 2] I found the book behind the boiler After the house went cold in heat Pages wet with kitchen grease And a column of receipts Not for bread and not for taxes For a room on the other side of town For a name that was not our name Written small and written down They told me grief had made me vicious They told me widows invent sin They did not see the ink They did not see what went in [Pre-Chorus] Not the watch Not the ring Not the suit they picked with care The dirt took What the family Could not stand to keep upstairs [Chorus] What they buried with him Was never only him What they buried with him Was a year they would not name If the corpse road is for carrying Then it carried more than skin What they buried with him Is still walking in the living [Verse 3] On the thirty-first I took the mile With no lantern and no show I did not go to raise him I went to make the record know At the far gate I said both names The one we used and the one he kept The trees did not correct me The ditch accepted what I left A secret put in consecrated ground Does not become a saint It just gets quieter And it learns a longer wait [Bridge] I am not digging I am not playing in the dirt I am saying what the service Was designed to convert From a marriage into marble From a theft into a hymn You can close a box You cannot close What they buried with him [Breakdown] Cloth Coin Wood Name Cloth Coin Wood Shame If it fit beside his shoulder It went down All the same [Verse 4] Now they hang their paper ghosts And they drink to being kind They ask me why I will not dance Why I will not join the night I join it in a different key I join it with my mouth plain A holiday is just a mirror If you dare to look at what it frames I keep his chair. I keep the cold I keep the book they never claimed The dead can have the body The living still have the stain [Chorus] What they buried with him Was never only him What they buried with him Was a year they would not name If the corpse road is for carrying Then it carried more than skin What they buried with him Is still walking in the living [Final Chorus] What they buried with him I still taste it when I speak What they buried with him Makes the house go cold and weak If you meet me on that dead road Do not sell me your amen I already know the inventory Of what went into the ground with him [Outro] Box shut Town clean Truth packed In between What they buried with him Stays
