Crooked

[INTRO] [Loose fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Uneven, human timing. A low piano note appears now and then. No drums.] [VERSE 1] There's a tree behind the houses growing sideways through the fence. Somebody tied a rope around it when it wouldn't make much sense. They cut the lower branches. Painted circles on the bark. Still it found another direction every time they left the mark. [PRE-CHORUS] Funny thing about a tree: it never asks what trees should be. [CHORUS] Let me grow crooked, let me grow wild. Don't make me useful, just let me be alive. Let me grow crooked, let me take my time. You can keep your straight lines. I'll keep mine. [POST-CHORUS] Let it be ugly. Let it be strange. Let it grow sideways out of the frame. Hey, hey, leave it alone. Hey, hey, let it grow. [VERSE 2] We do it to the little ones before they learn the trick. Teach them how to hold their shoulders, teach them what they shouldn't pick. Put a ruler on their dreams. Put a price upon their heads. Call it love when we are shaping them. Call it help when they don't complain. [PRE-CHORUS] Funny thing about a child: you can make them fit a style and lose the wild. [CHORUS] Let me grow crooked, let me grow wild. Don't make me useful, just let me be alive. Let me grow crooked, let me take my time. You can keep your straight lines. I'll keep mine. [POST-CHORUS] Let it be ugly. Let it be strange. Let it grow sideways out of the frame. Hey, hey, leave it alone. Hey, hey, let it grow. [VERSE 3] Then one day we wake up older, wearing somebody else's shape. Got a house full of straight-backed chairs and nowhere left to escape. There's sawdust on the kitchen floor. A new table by the wall. Someone says, “It's beautiful.” Nobody asks what had to fall. [BRIDGE] [Drums enter softly. Bass begins to pulse. Harmony vocals gather.] Who taught the river where to go? Who told the roots which way below? Who decided which way was right before we ever saw the light? [BREAK] [Everything stops except voices.] Hey, hey. Leave it alone. Hey, hey. Let it grow. [FINAL CHORUS] Let me grow crooked, let me grow wild. Don't make me useful, don't make me mild. Let me grow crooked, let me take my time. You can keep your straight lines. I'll keep mine. [POST-CHORUS] Let it be ugly. Let it be strange. Let it grow sideways out of the frame. Hey, hey, leave it alone. Hey, hey, let it grow. [OUTRO] [Everything falls away except acoustic guitar.] Some trees become tables. Some become homes. Some stay trees. [One final guitar note.]