[Intro: soft piano, clean guitar swell] Four in the morning and the plows are still asleep Snow on the windshield and a promise I still keep [Verse 1] You kept the house on Alder with the maple by the gate I got a room above the bakery and a single dinner plate Every time the weatherman says six inches overnight I'm lacing up my boots before the streetlights lose their light I park down at the corner so the engine doesn't wake you And cut a path from your front step the way I used to do Salt along the edges where you fell that first December And I'm gone before your kitchen light, one less thing to remember [Pre-Chorus] We signed it was over in a lawyer's blue pen But the sky keeps on asking me over again [Chorus] Snow shovel in the dark Scraping out the things I never said I couldn't clear the way we fell apart So I clear your walk instead Snow shovel in the dark Every flake's a word I owe If you ever want to find me Follow the path through the snow [Verse 2] Second storm of January there's a mug out on the post Two sugars and a lid on it, the way I like it most No note beneath the handle, just the steam against the gray I drink it in the truck and let the heater have its say Our girl is at the upstairs glass, she waves her mitten slow She's twelve and she keeps secrets better than the grownups know You never say a word about it and neither, babe, do I We talk in mugs and pavement now, it's the only way we try [Pre-Chorus] I never was good at the talking part, hon But I'm good at the morning before there's a sun [Chorus] Snow shovel in the dark Scraping out the things I never said I couldn't clear the way we fell apart So I clear your walk instead Snow shovel in the dark Every flake's a word I owe If you ever want to find me Follow the path through the snow [Guitar Solo: soaring, melodic, eight bars] [Bridge: half-time, piano and voice, building] Maybe love's a job you do where nobody can see Maybe sorry isn't something that you say, it's something you repeat I don't need the house back and I don't need the ring I just need to know you're walking safe when the ice is on everything [Verse 3: quiet, drums drop out] Last snow came in March, barely two inches on the stairs I almost didn't come, and then my boots were standing there The mug was on the mailbox with a paper underneath Four words in your pencil and I couldn't find my breath Leave the shovel, come inside [Final Chorus: key change up, full band] Snow shovel by the door Leaning where it leaned for years I couldn't clear the way we fell apart But I cleared enough to get here Snow shovel by the door Every flake a word I owed If you ever want to find me I'm in the kitchen, out of the snow [Outro: piano, voice] Four in the morning and the plows are still asleep Two mugs on the table and a promise we can keep
