Gm                                  Bb
        I recall once on the church steps,
                          F
When I moved to kiss your chest,
                        C
How we paid such close attention
                            Gm
To each sweet and stuttered breath,
                                    Bb
I should’ve stopped to paint our picture,
                       F
Captured honest pure affection,
                              C
Just to document the difference
                                 Gm
between attraction and connection.


Gm                        Bb
I can see all of my friends and
                   F
I break into empty buildings,
F
When the coast was clear,
     C
With backpacks full of beer,
               Gm
We’d throw our bottles from the rooftops
        Bb
At this city-it looked endless.
        F
Guess I still don’t see the difference
                C                          Gm
between real purpose and that urgent adolescence.


Gm                 Bb
And I remember in a basement sharing sweat
               F
With all these stranger boys and girls,
                  C
“We’ll change the world!” We sang,
                              Gm
“We’ll change the world!” But,
Gm
Nothing seems to change and
         Bb
They say none of them will listen,
      F                                 C
But I still see much more power in that basement
                      Gm
than in heartless politicians.


Gm                            Bb
And if we get beaten by this winter,
                             F
If we get strangled by regret, just
                            C
Let our love of life and tension
                            Gm
Gasp in sweet and stuttered breaths, and
                          Bb
Have them lay us in a basement,
                          F
Smash some bottles on the ground, and
                                C
Say we couldn't tell the difference
C                                Gm
between the feeling and the sound.


                        Bb
Remember not our faulty pieces,
                        F
Remember not our rusted parts,
                              C
It’s not the petty imperfections that define us but
    Gm
The way we hold our hearts,
        Bb
And the way we hold our heads,
            F
I hope they write your names beside mine
      C
on my gravestone when I’m dead.
         Gm                              Bb
And when we’re dead let our voices carry on
Bb
To find a better song.
   F                               C
To find a better song and sing along
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