[Intro] Night air cuts my teeth Radio dead Two hands on the wheel And your month in my head [Verse 1] I take the long way past the diner with the burned-out sign Past the lot where we sat and let the engine tick and cool Main street is a filmstrip now, one storefront at a time Orange bulbs in the hardware window, frost on every stool You used to tap the dash like it owed you a better song I used to watch your mouth more than I watched the road That was October talking, making ordinary things feel long Now the same stretch of pavement just wants to collect what I owed [Pre-Chorus] I drop the glass Let the cold climb in If I keep the heat on I start remembering when [Chorus] Windows down past town I am driving through the version you still keep Every yellow line is a sentence you won't say out loud Every porch light is a year I cannot sleep Windows down past town Your October riding shotgun with no seat I can taste the month you saved And it will not let me leave [Verse 2] The high school parking lot still holds our cheap beer ghosts Somebody painted over the wall where you wrote my name wrong I slow down like a coward and I count the empty posts Then I punch it like the night might forgive me if I'm gone There's a jacket on the seat that is not even yours It just sits there like a stand-in for the one I want back I talk to the dark like the dark keeps better scores And the dark just lets me ramble down this cracked black track [Pre-Chorus] I drop the glass Let the mile markers win If I close the window I have to live with the skin I'm in [Chorus] Windows down past town I am driving through the version you still keep Every yellow line is a sentence you won't say out loud Every porch light is a year I cannot sleep Windows down past town Your October riding shotgun with no seat I can taste the month you saved And it will not let me leave [Verse 3] I pass your mother's street and I do not turn the wheel That house still smells like cider if I let my mind get cheap You said the good part lived in how the early dark could feel I said the good part lived in you, and you just looked at me Now I measure out the blocks like they are verses in a book Page one is the red light, page two is the bridge Page three is the place we swore we would not look And page four is me still doing it, still kissing that ridge [Bridge] Tell me why a season gets to outlive the two people in it Tell me why your memory wears my face better than I do I would wreck this car for one unedited minute Not the pretty one you keep The ugly true The one where I was standing there And you were looking through [Breakdown] Hands shake Town shrinks Leaves slap the hood Like they know my name Like they want blood [Chorus] Windows down past town I am driving through the version you still keep Every yellow line is a sentence you won't say out loud Every porch light is a year I cannot sleep Windows down past town Your October riding shotgun with no seat I can taste the month you saved And it will not let me leave [Final Chorus] Windows down past town Do not make this kind I will take the cold If I can keep you in the mind Windows down past town Say the month out loud with me If you kept October Then keep a little of me [Outro] Street goes black Engine talks I do not turn around I just drive it out Windows down Past town
