[INTRO — instrumental, tumbling bass, nervous sax flutters] [HOOK — jittery, warm] Overdue, overdue (thirty-one years) Little red stamp and a book of verse Overdue, overdue (thirty-one years) The fine's gonna hurt — but the return hurts worse (overdue) [VERSE 1 — rapid, jittery] Found it in the attic in a box marked WINTER (winter) Between the board games and a half a broken printer Poems — green cloth cover — library of the county Checked out March of '94 by the man who would be My father — due back April — he died in the fall And the book just stayed in the pocket of it all Sat with it a week — read the parts he underlined Little pencil stars by the lines that he mined For something — there's one about coming home late Starred twice — he worked doubles — I was eight And I carried it in like a man returning a loan Walked up to the desk with thirty-one years on loan And the librarian looks at the stamp, looks at me Does the math on her keyboard, winces carefully [HOOK — jittery, warm] Overdue, overdue (thirty-one years) Little red stamp and a book of verse Overdue, overdue (thirty-one years) The fine's gonna hurt — but the return hurts worse (overdue) [VERSE 2 — warmer, steadier] She says: sir, this fine is technically a fortune Then she reads the name on the card and her whole face turns She says: wait — I know this card — I know this man He used to bring a little boy — you'd be him, and I nod — and she closes the drawer on the fine Says: we stopped charging those in 2009 For exactly this reason — people bring them back late With the weight of a whole life on the return date She slides it back across and says: read it, keep it It's been thirty-one years — the county can keep a secret I said: no — put it back on the shelf where it goes Some other man working doubles needs to know That somebody starred the good parts before him That's what a library is — one long lantern [BRIDGE — piano stabs, voice bare] He never finished it — the bookmark's still in Page eighty-one — a bus ticket, thin I left it there — whoever finds it next Gets a father, a fine, and a star in the text [OUTRO — sax flutters and fades] (overdue... overdue...) Page eighty-one Somebody starred it twice
