Last Route Home

Instrumental Intro

(rain ticking chrome and concrete hum

far off siren winding gone)

Verse 1

Two in the morning and the streetlight hums its low note

Clock on the pharmacy says the night just won't let go

I lean on the pole counting tired faces in the glass

My own reflection looks like someone letting go too slow

I've got rent due and questions I refuse to ask

Standing where the last route maybe comes

Chorus

We all got a ticket for the final bus tonight

Every stranger here is waiting for the same dim light

Nobody knows the road but everybody knows the stop

We'll climb aboard the last one when the city finally drops

Verse 2

Nurse at the bench still laced in her hospital shoes

Torn sleeves and a badge she never learned to lose

Vendor beside her counting copper in his palm

Stack of unfinished essays in a student's cold blue hands

Old mechanic's umbrella lets the drizzle through

He wipes his sockets and he laughs about the storm

Instrumental Break

Verse 3

Somebody asks the nurse if she saved a life tonight

She says the ward was quiet for a change and that's alright

Vendor splits his change and buys him a black coffee

Student offers pages nobody will ever read

Mechanic mutters engines he once taught to breathe

And I'm thinking maybe missing boats is not the point to be

Bridge

The sign above our heads says the last one's been and gone

A long quiet settles where the people ought to stand

Every back in that line was carrying a different stone

Nurse, vendor, student, me with my undone plans

Breakdown

(three blocks off a rumble swells

headlights turn the corner gold)

Final Chorus

Another bus rolls in and the doors hiss open slow

Nobody needed a hero everybody just said go

We dragged our little burdens up the metal stair

And everybody made it home from the cold night air

Outro

(bass walking low like a heartbeat

guitar damped to a whisper

the streetlight clicks itself off)