Sunburnt Shoulders

Verse 1

The screen door slams on a rented room

I'm sixty-eight and the boards still cry

Same wind off the river

Same long July

I had a girl with sunburnt shoulders

A hand-me-down Chevrolet

We drove past the mills where our fathers died

And swore we'd never stay

Pre-Chorus

I can still hear her laughing

Through the tape hiss and the rain

Still taste the cheap wine on her mouth

Still feel that first pain

Chorus

And I loved her like a highway

Loved her like a hymn

Loved her like the last light

Dying on the rim

I was young and I was certain

Certain as a stone

Now I'm just an old man

Driving home alone

Post-Chorus

(Home alone)

(Driving home alone)

(Home alone)

(Driving home alone)

Verse 2

She wore my jacket to the boardwalk

Left her name inside the sleeve

I was too proud to call her back

Too broke to leave

The factory closed the autumn after

She married some guy from the shore

I kept her picture in a toolbox

Twenty years or more

Pre-Chorus

Every time the radio plays

Some faded summer tune

I'm eighteen on the turnpike

Beneath a paper moon

Chorus

And I loved her like a highway

Loved her like a hymn

Loved her like the last light

Dying on the rim

I was young and I was certain

Certain as a stone

Now I'm just an old man

Driving home alone

Post-Chorus

(Home alone)

(Driving home alone)

(Home alone)

(Driving home alone)

Bridge

Maybe she's still living

Maybe she forgot

Maybe love is just a town

That closes up and rots

I drove out past the fairgrounds

Past the boarded dairy queen

Past every kid I used to be

In that Chevrolet machine

Guitar Solo

Chorus

And I loved her like a highway

Loved her like a hymn

Loved her like the last light

Dying on the rim

I was young and I was certain

Certain as a stone

Now I'm just an old man

Driving home alone

Post-Chorus

(Home alone)

(Driving home alone)

(Home alone)

(Driving home alone)