Watching your hands tremble

Instrumental Intro

Verse 1

Fetch me that jar of pickled pig feet

Under the floral wallpaper

I can feel my left lung finally surrender

Watching your hands tremble while you peel a pear

Chorus 1

You kept my secrets in a shoe box

You washed the bile from my favorite lace dress

Fifty years of sharing a twin mattress

We are a magnificent mess

Verse 2

Don't let the neighbors see me toothless

Close the heavy oak shutters

The soup tastes like old pennies today

Pass me the chipped basin before I mutter something cruel

Chorus 2

You fixed the leaks with scrap rubber

You tolerated my screeching bouts of laughter

Building a life out of rotten rafters

Until there is no before or after

Bridge

Tie my shoes

Comb my hair

Watch the door

Breathe the air

Verse 3

The priest has a stain on his collar

Give him a copper coin to go away

Your knuckles are swollen like knotted pine

Funny how we still have so little to say in this room

Chorus 3

You held the bucket when I withered

You sang songs to my yellowing skin

Forgiveness is where the silence begins

I think we finally win

Verse 4

Pull the wool blanket up to my chin

The air smells like wet pavement

Remember that night in the basement

Everything we own is just a temporary placement for a soul

Instrumental Outro