I Can Put One Thing Down

[Verse 1]
I could pull the pin on everything I know,
Leave the keys beside the sink and let the whole thing go.
Watch the careful little towers tumble into dust,
Start with bare hands, start with nothing, start because I must.

[Pre-Chorus]
The thought runs hot, the room goes still,
Then I picture your face against the windowsill.

[Chorus]
I want the wreckage, I want the wide-open page,
But I know what my leaving would set loose in its wake.
So I stay with the pieces, though the old shape is gone;
I can want to disappear and still not pass it on.

[Verse 2]
There’s a clean kind of terror in an empty room,
No old names on the boxes, no familiar bruise.
But you’d be left explaining all the silence I made,
And that small, living fact keeps my hand from the blade.

[Final Chorus]
I want the wreckage, I want the wide-open page,
But I know what my leaving would set loose in its wake.
So I stay with the pieces, let the first light come on;
I can want to disappear and still not pass it on.

[Outro]
I don’t have to burn it down.
I can put one thing down.