A Drawn Position

[Verse 1]
The top left drawer beside the Kenmore stove
Sticks on a dime from 1989.
Your grandad's silver fork, a story that he wove,
Lies by my mother's lacquered, waiting line.

[Chorus]
This ain't a checkmate, it's a long, slow game.
We trade a pawn to keep the queen from blame.
It's just a drawn position, honey, in the humid air,
Playing for a stalemate that was never really there.

[Verse 2]
I see the whole board on a Tuesday night,
The scent of rain on asphalt, hot and low.
You're sleeping soundly in the hallway light,
A sacrifice I made three years ago.

[Spoken-Word Interlude]
(A distant, filtered female voice, like an old recording)
"The stones on the board, Tamako... they do not move themselves. You must see the whole board."

[Chorus]
This ain't a checkmate, it's a long, slow game.
We trade a pawn to keep the queen from blame.
It's just a drawn position, honey, in the humid air,
Playing for a stalemate that was never really there.

[Bridge]
One day this drawer will be somebody's past.
They'll find the silver, toss the painted wood.
They won't know the patient shadow that we cast,
Or understand the move I understood.

[Outro]
The drawer just sticks.
And I let it.