The Lag Time

[Verse 1]
We watch the August sun bleed out on Chippewa Street,
The Wi-Fi strains to make your distant face complete.
A two-second silence hangs on every single word we say,
From a red brick house in STL to fifty-six hundred miles away.

[Chorus]
And oh, the lag time, the lag time is the mother tongue we know,
A ghost inside the signal wire where our real conversations go.
We're learning how to love someone across an ocean's hum,
Before the future's even started, the missing has begun.

[Verse 2]
Our parents watch us from the doorway, ghosts in their own right,
Translating all our easy laughter in the laptop's pale blue light.
They hear a language that we're losing, a city we've never seen,
And we just show you the new kitten sleeping on the screen.

[Chorus]
And oh, the lag time, the lag time is the mother tongue we know,
A ghost inside the signal wire where our real conversations go.
We're learning how to love someone across an ocean's hum,
Before the future's even started, the missing has begun.

[Bridge]
The dzezva on the stove is cold now, the coffee thick as tar.
Someone whispers, "Tell them about the dent in Dad's new car."
But the screen freezes on your smile, a watercolor blur,
And outside, the cicadas start their hot and heavy whir.

[Outro]
The sun is gone from Chippewa Street.
The pixels rearrange to black. And we see us.