The White Lines Divide

[Intro]
I left your blue scarf on the chair
Your coffee cooled beside the stairs
Three roads were waiting in the rain
And every one still knew your name

[Verse 1]
I gave my Sundays to your sorrow
My best advice, my borrowed car
I held the door for every maybe
And called the distance love, not far

You came with maps folded like letters
Each one addressed to someone new
I kept unfolding all the corners
Till none of them could lead me through

[Pre-Chorus]
Now the signposts split beneath my hands
One says stay, one says begin
I hear your footsteps in the gravel
And my own heart asking where I’ve been

[Chorus]
I loved too freely, gave too many keys
Left every window open to the breeze
Now I’m standing where the white lines divide
With all your roads running through my life
If I turn back, I lose the ground I’ve found
If I move on, will I let you down?
At this fork, with the dusk coming through
Which road leads me back to me, not you?

[Group Chants]
Which way? Which way?
Who stays? Who stays?

[Verse 2]
Your number’s still beneath the magnet
Beside the market list and rent
I know the sound your silence makes now
I know how much of me it spent

I carried every half-made promise
Like jars of water up the hill
Some hands were warm, some hands were leaving
I kept on pouring out until

[Pre-Chorus]
The road behind is full of roses
I planted where the ditches run
But I can’t keep each bloom from falling
Or call the falling what I’ve done

[Chorus]
I loved too freely, gave too many keys
Left every window open to the breeze
Now I’m standing where the white lines divide
With all your roads running through my life
If I turn back, I lose the ground I’ve found
If I move on, will I let you down?
At this fork, with the dusk coming through
Which road leads me back to me, not you?

[Instrumental Break]
[Saxophone and distorted guitar trade phrases over a lurching electronic groove]

[Bridge]
Maybe love is not a ledger
Maybe leaving isn’t blame
Maybe I can keep the good parts
Without carrying every name

I can wish you safe arrivals
I can grieve what didn’t stay
I can choose a road at sunrise
Without knowing where it lays

[Breakdown]
One hand open
One hand free
No more giving
All of me

[Final Chorus]
I loved too freely, gave too many keys
Now I’m learning what a boundary means
At the place where the white lines divide
I can let your roads run past my life
If I turn back, I’ll remember why
If I move on, I don’t have to lie
At this fork, with the dawn coming through
I choose the road that carries me through

[Group Chants]
Choose one road!
Keep your name!
Love can leave
And love remain!

[Outro]
Your blue scarf rests upon the chair
The morning opens everywhere
I take one breath, then one more step
And keep the heart I haven’t spent