[Verse 1] Thirty-eight single occupy checkmark dating It has two notices pops once here beside the kitchen sink First time my balance do is help me balance anything Chair stood straight Nothing else did Boots by the stairs, I rehearsed my departure Your reaction You said when I said, don't start, reverse the conversation Made you perfectly fair question sound like open provocation I was scared to make a choice, so I put you on probation I never said you lied I never said you lied Shift the stress, shift the blame, same words, different crime I left the charge implied and hid behind a technical denial You got sentenced by a syllable before we reached the trial Objection to inflection, correction to correction He said that hurt, I said define it Made your tears the next objection Kept the timestamps of your temper, filed your silence as concession I could win a conversation, couldn't make you wanna stay Ain't done paying for it Some debts don't come by mail Bank can count the balance, not the person that I failed Boots beside the doorway, polished up the run Can't outwalk a thing I did by saying that we're done Lord, don't clear the record Help me get the record right I ain't done paying for it I can quit charging you tonight [Verse 2] Phone says final notice, third one in a week Collectors leave a message, people I heard don't speak Interests kept building, I showed none when you spoke Asked you for some breathing room, that's now the room I sleep in Pawnshop glass, fifteen winter scratched across the face Fifty-fifteen years, that doesn't raise the price Folded up the ticket, tucked it underneath the rent You gave me years I couldn't price, I sold a watch instead Exact in exhibit, all your fury for the jury Cut the lead and kept the screaming, let our friends invent the story I was needling you for hours, barely loud enough to catch Then I pushed the phone between us right before you finally snapped Saved the date, shaved the tape, framed your snap as your decision Cut the bait, kept the raise and called omission precision Seventh thumbs beneath my evidence, your friends stopped taking calls I'd won the room by cutting you, I came home to these walls Momma calls us supper eat, yeah, I'm fed Two crackers in the cupboard and a headache in my head You sound tired, long shift for spoon taps at her end She doesn't ask to prove I lied and wish she'd ask again I wanted space, got walked, walk Got fifty dollars for a watch, got all my words in order Can't make one honest call Called a pastor sentence, kept you serving every tense When you finally reached the period, I appealed against the end Said I wanted a clean record, then I cleaned the record And cut the part where I said prove it, kept the part where you were roaring Now I hear my little whisper underneath the kitchen fan Gone, lose it, gone, that's me giving you a hand Not the helping kind of kind, took the glass and hid the spill Then took pictures of the puddle to explain why I stood still I charged you with the damage, charged you twice for the repairs Made you pay the interest on the deck you had to share Every sorry came with but, I'll change, stay future tense I correct your punctuation while you asked for common sense No appeal to misinterpretation, no exception, no defense I was missing context, I had made the context disappear You don't owe me absolution, I can't purchase it with shame Losing sleep won't give you back the nights I stole and called your name Free words, no qualification, I hurt you, that's the sense Lord, I used to say amen like the asking had an end Here's split a man, the one who has to make amends Not a pardon, not a prayer that makes the past disappear Just a phone and one plain truth I haven't let my mother hear Ain't I'm paying for it Keep by my way back in, I can't stop sending you the bill For what I did, boots beside the doorway First step isn't through the door, it's four feet to the phone That's what the road is for Lord, don't clear the record Help me get the record right I ain't done paying for it I can quit charging you tonight [Outro] I didn't eat I lied about that, too Can you stay a minute?
