Remainder Always Remains

[Verse 1] The story stays the same Same coffee stain on the page You circle all the sacred names Then skip the ending anyway Remainder on the side Little numbers you can’t hide You fold the corner Close your eyes Ask me to rewind [Chorus] The remainder always remains Like a song in the hills and the rain You can tear out every page But the echo stays Fiddle hums under the frame Same question in a low sweet twang “Shall I tell the story again? Shall I tell the story again?” [Verse 2] You say “skip to the part Where I don’t fall apart” But every shortcut Every start Leads right back to the first scar Same joke Different laugh Same future in the photograph We keep the cover Lose the draft Still doing the old math [Chorus] The remainder always remains Like a song in the hills and the rain You can tear out every page But the echo stays Fiddle hums under the frame Same question in a low sweet twang “Shall I tell the story again? Shall I tell the story again?” [Verse 3] Sidewinding serpent in the grass Same coil ’round the poor man’s past You fed it once out in the pasture Now it’s riding every breath you cast Every word you swallow whole Rattles low like a jug of bones Same venom in your country tone Still that hiss beneath your oath [Bridge] How many retakes Till it rings true? I change the verses But they still bend to you (oh) If every picking Ends the same old way Is it mercy or mistake To press replay? [Chorus] The remainder always remains Like a song in the hills and the rain You can tear out every page But the echo stays Fiddle hums under the frame Same question in a low sweet twang “Shall I tell the story again? Shall I tell the story again? Shall I tell the story again?”