Staying Home

didn’t grow up mean, but I damn sure learned folks’ll shake your hand while they watch you burn worked that diner grill from dusk till four smelled like smoke, but it paid the store mama called less when the house went cold dad left early, left his name in gold on a dusty plaque by a second place prize and a box full of tools I still can’t recognize I ain’t broke, but I’m dented I ain’t lost, just took the long way round ain’t preachin’, but I’ve sinned it and I still hear that small-town sound (Hook) where the wind knows my first name where the church bell don’t wait where I’ve learned how to bend without tryin’ to break where the nights come quiet and the work comes late and you build what you can with the time that it takes Joey’s got a kid now, name’s Monroe says she laughs like her mama, walks kinda slow he quit drinkin’ back in twenty-two still smells the bourbon when the sky turns blue and me? I just keep on patchin’ tires keep my head down, feed the meter, dodge the wires used to write songs just to keep from sleep now I hum ’em at the stoplights, low and deep I ain’t lost, just wanderin’ ain’t wise, but I’ve listened close ain’t rich, but I’ve been all in on things that matter most (Hook) like the wind knowin’ my first name the porch light never changed a laugh in the dark from a friend who stayed a quiet kind of loud in the choices I’ve made I just build what I can with the time that it takes (Outro) some folks run some folks roam some of us just learn how to stay home