[Intro] [piano only] Dust on the box Dust on the lid [Verse 1] I found them wrapped in a shirt I don't wear Yellow edges curling like leaves in November Your face in the Polaroid starting to fade From the left side first, like a tide going out I hold them up to the light from the window And see through the places where the chemicals died [Chorus] This is my glass archive Of things that won't stay This is my glass archive Of colors turned grey I keep them in ice But the ice melts away [Verse 2] There's one of the car with the door hanging open There's one of the kitchen the morning we left There's one where you're laughing but your eyes are elsewhere Looking at something behind the photographer I want to step into the frame and warn you But the paper is thinner than skin [Chorus] This is my glass archive Of things that won't stay This is my glass archive Of colors turned grey I keep them in ice But the ice melts away [Bridge] And if I scanned them into a machine Would they last any longer than me? Would the image remember the heat of the sun? Or would they just be A different kind of dust A different kind of rust On the memory [Verse 3] The last one is blank but for a thumbprint A smudge of oil from a human hand I press my own thumb to the plastic And make a new mark on the old mistake The album closes with a sigh of vinyl And I put it back where the moths won't find it [Outro] The box goes back on the shelf in the closet Where the winter coats wait for the cold I hear the archive crack as I close the door A small sound Like a bone Like a word That I forgot to say
