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My father was a paper plane |
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My mother was a windswept tree |
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My little brother's nearly twice my age |
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He taught me how to meditate, I taught him how to read |
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I grew up with a book in my bed |
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I got these dark circles before I turned ten |
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Heard my mother with her friends worry it was something she did |
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To get such a serious kid |
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But I've learned how to paint my face |
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How to earn my keep, how to clean my kill |
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Some nights I still can't sleep |
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The past rolls back, I can see us still |
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You've learned how to hold your own |
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How to stack your stones |
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But the history's thick |
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Children aren't as simple as we'd like to think |
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Before you came along I was a lone cub |
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Fell in love with language, tried to tell the grown-ups |
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About the storm clouds, the weather in my head |
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Hadn't heard the word for melancholy yet |
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Then you came in five years behind |
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We thought you couldn't talked, turned out you were just shy |
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Mom said it was serious, Dad said you'd be fine |
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I thought you were the prophet of 1989 |
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You were so tender we thought something was wrong with you |
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So patient we thought that you were deaf |
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You were so solemn, so tiny but so ancient |
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Mom took you to see doctors, you scared her half to death |
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And I made you a library |
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Of tiny books with spines two inches high |
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You didn't say too much, but your smile |
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Taught me how to quiet down my mind |
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But I've learned how to paint my face |
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How to earn my keep, how to clean my kill |
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Some nights I still can't sleep |
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The past rolls back, I can see us still |
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You've learned how to hold your own |
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How to stack your stones |
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But the history's thick |
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Children aren't as simple as we'd like to think |
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You slept in my bed |
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And if I kept quiet |
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I could hear all the voices in your head |
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When the wagon tipped, I prayed over your body |
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I asked God to take the damage out on me |
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Ten years later, he finally gets the memo |
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Sent it to accounting and knocked out my front teeth |
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But you came to and took my hand |
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And held my eyes, and... |
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Me and you had a long walk home |
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So we decided not to cry |
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Now we've got a grown-up love |
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And I know that's how it's supposed to be |
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Same old story, Mom gets Easters |
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Lets Dad have Christmas Eve |
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But I won't pretend I don't remember |
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How unusual we were |
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The little mystic and his handler |
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All some children do is work |
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But I've learned how to paint my face |
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How to earn my keep, how to clean my kill |
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Some nights I still can't sleep |
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The past rolls back, I can see us still |
