[Intro: requinto guitar alone, then strings and soft bongos settle into a slow bolero] [Verse 1: powerful baritone, careful and plain] Where I grew up, nobody ever said it out loud We said it with a slammed door and a dinner plate So with you I go slow, like a tourist in a crowd Pointing at the menu, saying every word too straight I am here. You are kind. The coffee's hot The rain is on the window, and I want to stay Little sentences, present tense, it's all I got 'Cause the past tense in my house was a bruise that wouldn't fade [Chorus: strings open wide, full voice] Love is my second language I learned it late, in a country called you I still speak with an accent You can hear where I come from in everything I do [Verse 2: warmer, the grammar loosening] Now I'm working on the past tense, and it doesn't sting the same I was angry, I was nineteen, I was waiting to be blamed Now I'm working on the future, a tense my father never spoke Will and someday and tomorrow, he'd have heard them as a joke I conjugate the verb to stay in every way it bends I stay, you stay, we're staying, and the lesson never ends [Chorus] Love is my second language I'm still slow, but I'm getting through I still speak with an accent Every word comes out heavy, but every word is true [Bridge: requinto guitar and low strings carry it] Some nights I lose my words and fall back on the mother tongue A shrug, a slammed cabinet, a silence held too long And you never raise your voice, you just say it slow and plain Like the first day at the table, till I find the word again [Requinto solo: eight bars over the strings] [Verse 3: fluent now, soaring, the language finally his] Listen to me now, I got adjectives to spare I can tell you how the morning gets tangled in your hair How your laugh opens windows I nailed shut at seventeen How the quiet in our kitchen is the loudest thing I mean I don't point at the menu, I don't stumble at the door I dream in it now, baby, I don't translate anymore [Final Chorus: full orchestra, the biggest note on the last line] Love was my second language Now I dream in it the whole night through I'll always have the accent But listen close, my love, the accent falls on you [Outro: guitar and strings, one last held note] The accent falls on you [End]
0/500