[VERSE 1 — intimate, conversational, specific details] I bought the card before I remembered Stood there in the aisle Third one from the left Between the ones that say I love you And the ones that say You're my best friend And I just stood there With a card I couldn't send To an address I don't have anymoreThe flowers at the grocery store Are wrapped in pink and white today And every other person walking past me Has somewhere they need to be Has someone they need to see Has a reason for the roses And I'm standing here Relearning what it means To love someone Who isn't here to receive it [PRE-CHORUS] And I know she knew I know she always knew But knowing doesn't fill The chair at the table That still has her shape in it From every Sunday We sat there together Not knowing it was numbered [CHORUS — ensemble voices enter one at a time, building gently] There's an empty chair today At every table where she sat There's a silence in the morning Where her voice used to come back There's a number in my phone I haven't had the heart to clear There's an empty chair today And she's somehow still right here [VERSE 2 — grief and gratitude beginning to coexist] I made her recipe this morning Took me three tries to get it right She never measured anything Just knew it by the feel And I stood in the kitchen In the early light Trying to remember How her hands moved When she'd say Just a little more of this Just trust yourself You'll knowAnd I laughed Because I never trusted myself Until she told me to And I cried Because the thing That taught me how to laugh Is the thing I'm crying for And both of those things Are true At the exact same time And I think that's what She would have called Growing up [PRE-CHORUS] And I know she knew I know she always knew The things I never said The calls I kept postponing The visits I was saving For when I had more time As if time was something Either of us owned [CHORUS] There's an empty chair today At every table where she sat There's a silence in the morning Where her voice used to come back There's a number in my phone I haven't had the heart to clear There's an empty chair today And she's somehow still right here [BRIDGE — the gratitude breaking through the grief] I used to think grief meant You were losing someone Over and over Every holiday Every birthday Every ordinary Tuesday When something small reminds you But I think I understand now That grief is just love With nowhere to go yet And it doesn't go away Because it was never supposed to It just finds new places to live In the recipe I finally got right In the way I laugh Like she did Without meaning to In the chair that's empty That I'll never move Because the empty chair Means she was here And she was here She was here [FINAL CHORUS — ensemble full, voices unified] There's an empty chair today... At every table where she sat... There's a silence in the morning Where her voice used to come back There's a number in my phone I haven't had the heart to clear There's an empty chair today And she's somehow Still Right here [OUTRO] Happy Mother's Day, Mom.
