Stager's Beige

[Verse 1]
The porch swing chain still squeaks in G major.
You'll have to oil that when you take it to Delaware.
The Tuesday they list it, I'll unplug the phone,
sit on the floor and just practice being alone.

[Pre-Chorus]
And I'm walking through the rooms, memorizing the sounds,
the way the heat kicks on, the settling grounds.
The water stain above the sink that looks just like a lung,
the first gray thread of what we're all becoming.

[Chorus]
You'll take the good vases, I'll take the blame,
and we'll paint these walls in stager's beige.

[Verse 2]
The Clorox smell is stuck inside the grain of the wood stairs.
It never could get all the dirt out of our prayers.
Heard you on the line with Jen, you said, "She's always been the one who cares too much."
Is that a kindness or just a crutch?

[Pre-Chorus]
And I'm walking through the rooms, touching all the doors,
the peeling paint like sunburn from the summer wars.
The little notch we cut for every single inch you grew,
the phantom limb of what I thought was me and you.

[Chorus]
You'll take the good vases, I'll take the blame,
and we'll paint these walls in stager's beige.

[Bridge]
(A crowd of whispered vocals begins, low and rhythmic: seven kids... two beds... coal dust on the sills... needs work... good bones...)
This whole damn house is just a knot of tangled thread,
and I'm the only one who knows which way it's fed.

[Outro]
The screen door doesn't slam here anymore.
Just a hollow click when I am locking the front door.