[Intro - Male] Everybody talks over the game the score is just furniture [Verse 1 - Male country] TV on in the den like a second fireplace Uncles arguing a call that already took place Kids chasing a roll under the folding chair Everybody talks over the game and nobody cares who actually won last week. The point is the noise the gravy boat traveling, the girls and the boys of this family stacking sentences until they overlap I watch her from the doorway with a plate in my lap of air. She is learning names the way you learn a map by getting lost a little. Everybody talks over the game and still she finds my eyes like she found my name in a room that does not pause for newcomers much I mouth "you good?" She mouths "I am. Stay in touch with that look." I stay. The quarterback throws Nobody sees it. Everybody already knows the real game is the table. The rest is a screen [Pre-Chorus - Male sung] Let them talk let them cheer I am only listening for you from here [Verse 2 - Female rap] I cannot hear the down. I can hear the whole house talking in layers like a choir that did not rehearse Somebody wants salt. Somebody wants a replay Everybody talks over the game and I am okay because his knee finds mine under the tablecloth and that is the only broadcast I need to be both in this room and still myself. I rap my nerves down into a smile that does not have to own the town I pass the cranberry. I laugh at a joke I half got City girl, county table, same crowded plot Everybody talks over the game. I talk under it to him in a look that does not need a script If this is family, it is loud and it is good I can live in the volume. I understood the assignment when he pulled the extra chair in tight Everybody talks over the game. We talk in light [Pre-Chorus - Female sung] Let them talk let them yell I am only listening for the part that is us as well [Chorus - Both] Everybody talks over the game plates and opinions in the same loud frame You and me in a private little station cutting through the whole conversation Everybody talks over the game football is the excuse, the table is the flame If they never notice the score or the kiss I will take the noise if I can take this Everybody talks over the game we can let them we already won the room without saying who we are to them [Verse 3 - Male country] Halftime commercial, somebody changes the subject to work and weather and a cousin they suspect will be late again. She pours more tea like she lives here Everybody talks over the game. I want her near enough that the noise becomes a blanket, not a wall I have sat at this table through a hundred falls This is the first one that feels like a new wing on a house I thought was finished. Let them sing over the whistle. Let them miss the play I am watching the only thing that matters today [Verse 4 - Female rap] I used to need quiet to know if I belonged This room taught me belonging can be loud and long and still make space if one person keeps a lane open under the table. Everybody talks over the game I talk over my fear. I talk into the heat of a family that asks questions and still lets me eat without earning a medal. That is a rare kind of win I will come back next year and talk over it again if he wants me. From the way he looks, he does Everybody talks over the game. So do us [Chorus - Both, bigger] Everybody talks over the game plates and opinions in the same loud frame You and me in a private little station cutting through the whole conversation Everybody talks over the game football is the excuse, the table is the flame If they never notice the score or the kiss I will take the noise if I can take this Everybody talks over the game we can let them we already won the room without saying who we are to them [Bridge - Trade then Both] [Male] Let the TV run [Female] Let the uncles fight [Male] Let the kids spill [Female] Let the room stay bright [Both] Everybody talks over the game we talk underneath that is the real broadcast that is the wreath [Verse 5 - Trade] [Male] Tell me you can stand the volume for another hour [Female] Tell me the volume is the house showing its power [Male] Everybody talks over the game—say we stay [Female] We stay. We eat. We talk our own way [Final Chorus - Both, loudest] Everybody talks over the game plates and opinions in the same loud frame You and me in a private little station cutting through the whole conversation Everybody talks over the game football is the excuse, the table is the flame If they never notice the score or the kiss I will take the noise if I can take this Everybody talks over the game we can let them we already won the room without saying who we are to them [Outro - Both] Score forgotten table loud everybody talking we are still proud
