[Intro: soaring guitar riff, full band, gang shouts] (Hey!) Six years of nights (Hey!) One more to go (Hey!) Kitchen light on (Hey!) Let's go [Verse 1] Six a.m. in the hospital basement folding linen with my hands Six to nine at the city college with the kids who call me ma'am Forty one and learning bones, the femur and the spine Writing every word in pen on my wrist so it's there at folding time My boy was fourteen the year I started, leaving me a plate Now he's taller than the doorframe and he waits up when I'm late He taped every bone in the body up on the bathroom glass And he quizzes me at breakfast like I'm the one in class [Pre-Chorus] They said too old, too tired, too late I had a basket full of reasons I could wait But every night at one a.m. The kitchen light was on [Chorus] Night classes, I'm burning through the dark Six years of folding sheets and learning it by heart They said the night's for sleeping, but the night was all I owned So I switched it on like a kitchen light and carried it home [Verse 2] Year four I failed the final and I sat down on the floor Called my boy from the bus stop, said I can't do this anymore He said, Ma, I signed up for welding at your school this fall Same bus, same nights, so now you can't quit at all So we caught the five fifteen together, his helmet on his knees Me with a book of yellow highlights, him with burn holes in his sleeves Then we split up at the front steps, him to sparks and me to class Two Mendez on the honor roll taped up on the bathroom glass [Pre-Chorus] They said too old, too tired, too late Now I got a whole house full of reasons not to wait And every night at one a.m. Two lights were on [Chorus] Night classes, I'm burning through the dark Six years of folding sheets and learning it by heart They said the night's for sleeping, but the night was all I owned So I switched it on like a kitchen light and carried it home [Guitar Solo: melodic twin leads] [Bridge: half time, big toms] They called the names in alphabet, the arena on its feet Mendez, Carla, surgical tech, and my heart forgot to beat Then Mendez, Daniel, welding, right behind me in the line Like he did at five, holding my coat at the bus stop every time I heard him yell that's my mom above the whole crowd So I turned around on that stage and I yelled his name out loud [Final Chorus: key change up] Night classes, we burned right through the dark Six years of folding sheets and sparks and learning it by heart They said the night's for sleeping, but the night was all we owned So we switched it on like a kitchen light and carried it home [Outro: riff falls away to clean guitar] Monday morning, six o'clock Same hospital, third floor Laying out the drapes I used to fold Not the basement anymore
