[Intro: strings swell, piano, a pen clicks] [Verse 1: weathered male rapper, 2026] Twelfth floor, glass table, two lawyers and a box of tissues nobody touched Twenty-six years in a stack of paper. Didn't think it'd weigh this much My pen won't write. I scratch it on the margin, and it skips She slides hers across the glass, no words, just her fingertips Same blue pen out the junk drawer, teeth marks where she chewed the end Initial here, initial here, the house, the dog, the friends Every page a yellow sticky flag that tells you where you are I sign it like I always do, the J too big, a lazy scar [Hook: powerful soulful male baritone singer] Sign here, sign here Every time I loved you there was paper and a pen Every sign was right there, plain as Sunday, now and then And I signed it like a man who couldn't read. Sign here [Verse 2: weathered male rapper, 2008] Back up. Two thousand eight. Third floor, four in the mornin' Nurse hands me a clipboard with a pen on a chain, no warnin' Birth certificate. Our boy. Eight pounds and a head like mine She's laughin' through the tears, "You spelled his middle name wrong. Twice" Same month we closed the house on Delmar with the crooked porch Thirty years at six percent. Nobody in that room was thinkin' divorce She said, "We need to talk about your hours." I said, "After the closin'" After the closin' was the baby, and after the baby was the promotion [Hook: powerful soulful male baritone singer] Sign here, sign here Every time I loved you there was paper and a pen Every sign was right there, plain as Sunday, now and then And I signed it like a man who couldn't read. Sign here [Verse 3: weathered male rapper, 1999] Back up. Ninety-nine. Courthouse, Friday, both of us broke Borrowed a pen off the clerk. She wore her sister's coat I wrote my name so big it ran into the box for hers She laughed and squeezed hers in the corner, said, "That's us. That's how it works" Ten-dollar license and two hot dogs on the courthouse steps Swore I'd listen more than I talked. That's the first one I ain't kept [Bridge: sung, baritone, strings only] If I could sign it backwards Unwrite every line Find the first page that you handed me And read it one more time [Verse 4: weathered male rapper, almost spoken, piano and strings, 1992] Back up. Ninety-two. Last day of school, the hallway loud She grabs my yearbook, bites the cap and writes it standin' in the crowd Purple ink, a little heart instead of a dot over the i "Stay sweet. Don't ever change." Then she ran to catch her ride And I didn't. Not for her, not for the boy, not for the house on Delmar Thirty-four years I did exactly what she wrote. Look where we are [Final Hook: baritone, strings full] Sign here, sign here First thing that you ever wrote me, I followed to the end Every sign was right there, "Don't ever change," in purple pen And I signed it like a man who couldn't read. Sign here [Outro: piano alone, a pen cap clicks shut] [End]
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