Eighty Years

Verse 1

Counting ceiling tiles

Sinking into fabric

Seven a.m. cold

Coffee stained calendar marks the grid

I scrub the gray dirt

I scrub the heavy shame

Four decades of paper cuts

Still breathing slow

Just trying to survive

Chorus

Give me the sun when I am eighty

Give me the grace to wait

Wasting the gold

Trading the bloom

Trade it for a chance to breathe

One day I will walk away

One day I will walk away

Post-Chorus

Oh I wait

Walking the line

Watching the clock

Verse 2

Dust settles on the frame

Bent back

Frayed nerves

Filing folders until my eyes ache

Maybe it is enough

Maybe it was a lie

Building someone else's tower

While mine stays empty

Bricks of bored time

Stacking up high

Tall and hollow

Chorus

Give me the sun when I am eighty

Give me the grace to wait

Wasting the gold

Trading the bloom

Trade it for a chance to breathe

One day I will walk away

One day I will walk away

Bridge

Pensions and promises

Safe bets

Slow deaths

Looking for the exit

When the knees stop working

Is that when we start

Is that when it begins

The freedom to feel

Chorus

Give me the sun when I am eighty

Give me the grace to wait

Wasting the gold

Trading the bloom

Trade it for a chance to breathe

One day I will walk away

One day I will walk away

Outro

Healthy enough to wander

Maybe just enough

Clock out

Turn around

It's quiet now

Finally quiet now

Going home

Just going home