[verse 1] there’s a bucket in my head full to the edge something clear, something bright something I can’t lift I wish I could just pick the whole thing up set it in your hands say “this—this is it” but I can’t do that so I try like this [pre-chorus] all I’ve got is a straw thin, slow, small and it’s not enough at all [chorus] I’m pulling oceans through a straw trying not to spill it trying not to lose it all there’s so much in it more than I can say but it comes out broken half along the way you get an outline I had something whole just a ghost of it by the time it goes [verse 2] if I had a firehose I’d hand it to you let it all rush through quick and clean no missing pieces no blur, no delay just everything the way I see but I rush the straw and it spills instead drips through the gaps of what I said [pre-chorus] every drop I lose changes what you see and it’s not what I mean [chorus] I’m pulling oceans through a straw trying not to spill it trying not to lose it all there’s so much in it more than I can say but it comes out broken half along the way you get an outline I had something whole just a ghost of it by the time it goes [verse 3] it’s not just one it’s thousands like this lit up in the dark in my head like stars in a sky you’ll never see unless I could bring the whole night with me but I can’t hold that I can’t transfer it so I pick one point and I start with it [bridge] it’s like a sunset in the wrong medium lineart where it needed color you get sketches a whole gallery but none of them are what I saw edges missing shaded wrong light that never came across I had something vivid you get the shape of it [final chorus] I’m pulling oceans through a straw watching pieces fall watching meaning drop there’s so much in it I can’t translate it blurs at the edges on its way you hold fragments I held the whole just an echo of it by the time it goes [outro] if I could hand it over I swear I would the whole sky the whole bucket the whole flood but all I’ve got is this
