Letters in a Shoebox

Found a shoebox in the attic dust

Your name in ink and a little rust

I sat cross-legged on the bedroom floor Reading words I hadn't earned

before Ticket stubs and notes in folded white Every page still held

that summer light You were telling me the truth so plain I

was dressing pride up as my pain Every time you reached,

I pulled away Like being right could make a love one day

Now your handwriting is breaking me Line by line you show me

what I couldn't see

I was young, but that don't make it clean

I was the fire in a house we made

I let my ego turn your blue to gray If you're somewhere

laughing in a better place I hope the world is kind to

your brave heart every day And if my name still passes through

your mind Let it fade out easy with the changing sky I

don't ask for another chance tonight I just pray you're loved right

There was one where you said,

we need to talk I wrote back sharp like a slamming door

and lock You kept asking for a softer kind of man I

kept acting like I didn't understand Now the room is quiet as

a church And every little sentence makes it hurt Not because you

left or found your way Because I had your love and threw

it away

So wherever this life carried you

Through a westbound town or a skyline view May your hands be

held when the night runs long May somebody know how to hear

your song

I was the fire

in a house we made

I let my ego turn your blue to gray If you're somewhere

laughing in a better place

I hope the world is kind to your brave heart every day

And if my name still passes through your mind Let it fade

out easy with the changing sky I don't ask for another chance

tonight I just pray you're loved right

I put the letters back,

then bowed my head And wished you every good thing still ahead