[intro] [Opening with radio static] [Verse 1] The first cold morning finds me at the window counting the trees as they trade their green for gold A school bus sighs past with fog on the glass and the yard is full of paper leaves spinning into the grass I pick one up brown at the edge crisp in the middle like a letter I never sent It is strange how something can be leaving and still look more alive than before [Chorus] Oh, autumn came and broke my heart Oh, autumn came and made it art The air goes thin the colors stay I watch it fall and I don’t look away (don’t look away) [Verse 2] My neighbor stacks wood in a crooked line like he’s building a small sun for the colder months Somewhere down the block a rake starts scratching and the sound in the yard feels honest enough to keep There is sadness here in the early dark in the porch light waiting for nobody to come But there’s beauty too in the way the branches learn to draw themselves against a pale sky I stand in the middle of it hands in my pockets as if I might hold on if I stay very still [Chorus] Oh, autumn came and broke my heart Oh, autumn came and made it art The air goes thin the colors stay I watch it fall and I don’t look away (don’t look away) [Bridge] Maybe this is what we are not the bloom but the letting go Not the song of the summer fields but the last bright ember in the cold I have loved enough to know the ache I have lost enough to recognize the grace So let the wind take names from the maple bough let the day go dim let the night come down [Chorus] Oh, autumn came and broke my heart Oh, autumn came and made it art The air goes thin the colors stay I watch it fall and I don’t look away (don’t look away) [Outro] A leaf lands soft on the front step like a small hand knocking once And I open the door to the quiet season to the ache to the gold to the beautiful leaving
