You were dreaming of the violins You were dreaming of the passages In ancient texts where books of love were opened Subtle shadows and electric lines Broken chords for broken minds The breakneck pace of existential searching The songs you loved were like watching the stars in late Autumn The songs you loved were like running into the fog You could’ve burned this town with the dreams it had forgotten When your feet hit the ground you were already gone We were a hard scream with an echo at dawn All we knew was the side we were on Watching as the colors would ignite Not forgetting the taste of the longing Spinning faster in the shade of the song Deconstructing shivers in the sky The songs we loved were like watching the stars in late Autumn The songs we loved were like running into the fog We could’ve burned this town with the dreams it had forgotten When our feet hit the ground we were already gone For every voice coming out of the cracks For every time you swore you’d never go back For every desperate little lie That tried to eat you from inside For every politician smile For every lonely, ragged mile For every time you tried to jump Don’t hold back, don’t hold back, don’t hold back

All you could see was her silhouette Not the dust bowl raging inside Outside the trappings of etiquette She cut you down to size She said, “You could always get to the core of me, But you could never let me leave” When you turned to her your thoughts would crash like thunder But in your sorrow lay the truth you’d sought to hide You will go to the paper towns and never come back You will ignite the huddled masses with the poetry they lack Though your voice is muffled with aging sins grown bitter in their ways Don’t speak softly, don’t walk slowly, and don’t count the days No, don’t count the days She was only a silhouette All whispered secrets and easy grace Beneath the armor of etiquette Reciting names to patron saints to keep them safe But the names find ways to lose themselves in shadow and song You can escape only in the losing of the end for which you’d longed When you turned from her the strings inside you broke And in your sorrow there was one more truth You will go to the paper towns and never come back You will ignite the huddled masses with the poetry they lack Though your voice is muffled with aging sins grown bitter in their ways Don’t speak softly, don’t walk slowly, and don’t count the days No, don’t count the days Burn the Paper Towns! Burn the Paper Towns! Burn the Paper Towns! See the heart beating beneath! We will go to the paper towns and never come back We will ignite inside ourselves yet unsung poetry we lack Through voices muffled with aging sins grown bitter in their ways We won’t speak softly, we won’t walk slowly, and we won’t count the days No, we won’t count the days, no, we won’t count the days

They say the maddest part of war is all the downtime There’s nothing left to do but count the lice in all the stitches of your clothes Like cracks between the phrases that you circled in the last letter you got from home The answers are all on the edge of sleep when you’re falling but you come back up for air You’re strapped down to the bed, the shadows tell you you’re not going anywhere This town gave birth to you and me and the haze that choked the stars, So if we tried to count them we’d always fall short Fiction writers hold dirty keys to locks inside our hearts They hide our missteps, and make us beg for more And it’s a twisted kind of twist of fate that lets words we meant and spoke well break And gives the lie to all the times we swore we’d hold on But maybe we were stardust Maybe we were more than fading sparks From two live wires, never touching but so close We’ll never know We’ll never know That dripping sound was torture when I left you But you’d left me wide awake too many times and I just needed rest You told me you weren’t happy anymore and I swore this was for the best You said with ocean waves stapled rough inside our hearts, how could I just leave? I lied inside a smile; I didn’t want you thinking you could break me This town gave birth to you and me and the haze that choked the stars, So if we tried to count them we’d always fall short Fiction writers hold dirty keys to locks inside our hearts They hide our missteps, and make us beg for more And it’s a twisted kind of twist of fate that lets words we meant and spoke well break And gives the lie to all the times we swore we’d hold on And maybe we were stardust Maybe we were more than fading sparks From two live wires, never touching but so close We’ll never know We’ll never know My words all got lost in the kerosene flood I could just barely choke out “Baby, what have you done?” And the live wire in ballet set fire to the truth All spinning, all dancing, all looking at you There was nothing left for me to give you anyway I was too weak to hold out We ran right into the sun We should’ve known we were gonna burn

The interstate was colder than the worst morning mist But you had to escape that first hand you kissed And I was just a poet who could never sing sweet For that one true love i had yet to meet But I played my guitar raw with sunburned skin And I swear I never knew the shape your hands were in The local drink, you know it still drives me to tears But I’ll sing hallelujah like I lived a hundred years We were never young In this west-metro ghost town Where the tracks were never quite laid end to end The rotors turn, alive And now the children, they can drive Drive on through the night They’ll drive on through the night Romeos and liars all know how to break a heart For the ballerinas dancing up and down the boulevarde A little yellow flower follows ashes to the ground And like the poems never read, I watch her burn without a sound Because the fathers I’ve forgotten, they can’t teach me how to fight So I’ll drive up from the valley to see the city lights And the local drink, you know, it gets me through the days When the balcony it beckons and I just choose to fade We were never young In this west-metro ghost town Where the tracks were never quite laid end to end The rotors turn, alive And now the children, they can drive Drive on through the night They’ll drive on through the night Twirling right around inside this box they call the night You’ll find a supernova named for breaking black and white And you’ll forget the outcasts, the omens and the actions But promise me, promise you’ll remember all the madness When we cried We were never young In this west-metro ghost town Where the tracks were never quite laid end to end The rotors turn, alive And now the children, they can drive Drive on through the night They’ll drive on through the night

They pronounced Sarah dead sixty years before she managed to die And the ghost of the body they found still haunts her eyes Her brother was a crippling fever she’d never quite shake Her mother was the sin that keeps innocent victims awake She said, “God is in the wax and the devil’s in the sea That keeps me from the land idealists call free My body may break but I know how to bleed These records I love are all prophecies Of a time I won’t have to feel afraid And the sleepless see the monster that they made of me And that I, I am more than my wounds” They said Sarah could never be redeemed in the eyes of the Lord They threw her in the ocean ‘til she washed up on some distant shore The killer went free to steal her records and the answer to her blues So don’t talk down to someone who’s lost what you never could lose She said, “God is in the wax and the devil’s in the sea That keeps me from the land idealists call free My body may break but I know how to bleed These records I love are all prophecies Of a time I don’t have to feel afraid And the sleepless see the monster that they made of me And that I, I am more than my wounds” When we were children living in fairy tales We never thought we’d have to learn to hate But somewhere between thirty-three rounds per minute And a home that’s a thousand miles away We learned to mix the taste Of venom and wine To keep the hand of fate from driving us blind You’ve been so unkind Sarah, I know God is in the wax and the devil’s in the sea That keeps me from the woman I’d die to set free Her chains are forged in wounds carved like initials into trees And all I have for her are stories when I try for prophecies Of a time you won’t have to feel afraid And though the sleepless will never see the monster That they made of you I know you are more than your wounds We all are more than our wounds

Clad in cigarette shades and a faded sense of rage Stealing secrets from all the true believers, but nothing’s changed All the guilty parties abandoned ship, but you’re still afraid And everybody screams that you’re to blame But you can’t wash off the memories that you’ve sewn Though the shame you wear is not your own The triumph and redemption for which you wait Are coming near So cast off all that you fear The winds will shift and take you to your home You won’t be alone You won’t be alone The pleasantries of class are overshadowed by the scars of being shipwrecked The only light left on the ocean’s the reflection of the moon There comes a time in the life of every jester he dreams that he’s a hero If you could’ve left here before you came, it wouldn’t have been too soon No, you can’t wash off the memories that you’ve sewn Though the shame you wear is not your own The triumph and redemption for which you wait Are coming near So cast off all that you fear The winds will shift and take you to your home You won’t be alone You won’t be alone

The old generation has devoured the new Spitting out fire on the way to the moon Plowing down the past to build stone monuments to nothing And the last of the veteran’s kneeling to pray Said the end of the world, kids, is coming on soon And I’m jumping from rooftops to see if I can fly And though the sound was triumphant, I’ll never forget The rained-out games and fire pits And they told us, baby, that we couldn’t ignite But we lit ourselves up and I cried Take heart, my baby, have I ever led you wrong? I know every ride out of this town is long But it’s not so uneventful when the tide gets lower dear And if you get the chance, Jessie, promise you’ll let the smoke clear There are nights when we’d like to set fire to it all From the sinners we mourned to the saviors we called To the rooms in California that were all bought out by the cults And Jessie’s staring in awe at what the future could bring And the lovers whose rings only shine when they sing If you’re gonna make it out, you’re gonna make it with me She said, “you look like a dead man I used to know” And the whole world was shaking with the weight of her pulse And her father wasn’t watching as we dropped off the bridge Of a song by a man with his blood on his teeth But take heart, my baby, have I ever led you wrong? I know every ride out of this town is long But it’s not so uneventful when the tide gets lower, dear And if you get the chance, Jessie, promise you’ll let the smoke clear And the hills where we watched the lights of the city Are burning up like sunsets, and you know it’s fitting And I’ll run, Jessie, run a thousand miles away And I’ll call you a memory that faded away in the rain She used to steal, but just enough to stay alive She used to love these desperate songs, they used to hold us close in the night If you see that she’s in town and finds she has something left to say Won’t you send her on my way And if you get the chance, won’t you tell her I let the smoke clear?

The interstate was warmer with the desert left behind But you could run forever and never lose your mind Now I’m just a poet, words rolling off my tongue For the memories of ghosts up on avenues I loved And I played my guitar loud with spotlight skin But it’s quiet here at night when all the parties end The local drink’s collecting dust up on a shelf And I know I’ll make it out without becoming someone else These Irish winters freeze Freeze all the beauty queens