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