[Verse 1] They say my line got wings the day the garden changed the locks. My cousin belly-low paid legs. We paid the deed to any spot. Her book calls wings a blessing. Mine calls them the fee. Don't ask me why I moved in. Ask why I was born moved out. [Verse 2] Found a big old lacework mansion with the porch light burning low, old thread sleeping in the rafters, not a spinner left below. Lady of the house went quiet, left no word of where she'd gone, so I swept the wings out of the rooms and moved into what was left. Folks say every hall was measured to make leaving hard to do. I call that gossip and geometry-- I just improved the view. [Chorus] They call me the cuckoo-- my kind never built a thing. I move into the beautiful and teach the walls to sing. I'll trade you wings for walls, darlin'-- only deal my line has known. And if the whole house leans my way, who says it isn't home? Come on up and join me. Mind the sticky floor. And if your man comes calling, he won't be your man no more. [Verse 3] I tell the moth her dust is starlight, tell the firefly he's flame, tell the ladybug the whole red room was waiting on her name. They come in on their own wings and hang them by the door. I thought every wingbeat laughing meant they finally came to rest. If no one asked to test the latch, I figured no one meant to leave. And the rent is just a slow dance, one more turn around with me. Half this holler's heartaches trail a borrowed thread to me. [Turn - Swing Drags] Never spun a strand inside it, still the whole room bowed to me. I took the house's old obedience for a charm that came from me. Turns out empty don't mean harmless. Turns out silk remembers weight. I called every lock devotion till I couldn't work the gate. [Verse 4 - Room Narrows] Then you reached once for your wings, love, when the winter thinned the hall, and something older in me answered before I knew it spoke at all. I called your leaving treason and the whole house pulled us stuck. I finally learned what silk could do the night it caught us both. Funny thing about a deed, love: it came due the day it held. First thing my line ever owned is the room we can't leave. [Final Chorus - Damaged Swing] I still never built a thing, but I'm patching up the frame. Every thread was borrowed, but the tangle bears our name. I traded wings for walls, darlin', and the walls are holding true. I keep calling this devotion 'cause I don't know what else to do. I know every door inside it-- and every one locks, too. [Outro - Nearly Dry] All sky, not one acre. Then one acre, and no sky. I know which one's the cage now. God help me, I still call it home. Both boots on the dance floor, sweetheart. Nobody falls in love with one foot out the door.
