The Bitter End

[Verse 1]
The L.L. Bean key fob knocks the plaster by the door.
It’s the first real cold of autumn; haven't heard that sound before.
This radiator hiss is a language I don't speak.
My fibers ache for salt-swell, for the turning of the week.

[Chorus]
I was meant for tension, for a heavy, honest strain.
Now I hold a Subaru key out of the Boston rain.
He says I’m the last true thing he has, a knot he can’t undo.
I’m the bitter end of a tow-line, with nothing to pull through.

[Verse 2]
His father's father spliced me, smelled of tar and wintergreen.
Left me on a piling in the fog of 2013.
Silas took me with him, said "For luck, you never know."
Now I watch the U-Hauls on his street, coming and going so slow.

[Chorus]
I was meant for tension, for a heavy, honest strain.
Now I hold a Subaru key out of the Boston rain.
He says I’m the last true thing he has, a knot he can’t undo.
I’m the bitter end of a tow-line, with nothing to pull through.

[Bridge]
Last night, a girl was over, she touched me with her thumb.
She asked him, "What's this for?" and he just stood there, deaf and dumb.
Like he'd forgotten what a line is for, besides just hanging there.
Like he'd forgotten the feeling of the cold salt in the air.

[Outro]
Nothing to pull through.
Just hanging here.