A Kindness of Corners

[Verse 1]
The Totterdown gulls are crying hunger on the glass.
You draw a line of brown tape, trying to make it last.
Each corner folded perfect, a sharp and careful pleat,
A silence darned between us, down on Argyle Street.

[Chorus]
And oh, the kindness of the corners
That hold a life together at the seams.
Is this how you un-build a home?
With careful cuts and half-forgotten dreams.

[Verse 2]
I'm coiling up the lamp cord, the unspooling plastic thread.
"'This one's just the keepers,' is all you've really said.
The air smells of old paper and the coming winter rain,
Your jumper has a frayed cuff, I watch you pull the skein.

[Chorus]
And oh, the kindness of the corners
That hold a life together at the seams.
Is this how you un-build a home?
With careful cuts and half-forgotten dreams.

[Bridge]
Then you look right through me and you nearly, nearly smile,
"I guess I'll miss the way the light would hit that crooked tile."
And just for a second, the whole damn room is true,
And all the breaking in me is breaking towards you.

[Outro]
Just the screech of the tape gun.
And the gulls on the glass.