The Veil Lyrics (2022)
THE VEIL
We thought that we could catch the moon in the window of the way back
Diamond stars on velvet blue in the window of the way back
Daddy carried me to bed, my arms heavy round his neck
If I wasn’t sleeping, I’d pretend
Oh, the sweetness of your breath just like when you were a baby
Full surrender on my chest, I’ve been noticing lately
Every day you need me less and I know that’s for the best
Yeah, I know that’s for the best
We cannot go back, no matter how we wish it
We cannot go back now
I’ve been traveling all this time like I had a force field around me
Then for a moment we were flying and the floor became the ceiling
A storm of glass and crushing steel, no, it did not seem real
My hands still clinging to the wheel
We cannot go back now, the veil is lifted
We cannot go back now
We cannot go back no matter how we wish it
We cannot go back now
When I’m weaving through the crowd, I wonder are they with me or against me
We won’t speak these words out loud but we’ll scream it on the small screen
I’ve never seen such a great divide, so high and so wide
But it’s been here all this time
We cannot go back now, the veil is lifted
We cannot go back now
We cannot go back, I’m scared that we can’t fix it
We cannot go back
We thought that we could catch the moon in the window of the way back
THE OLD ME
Our bed is not so big
Your whole body is in my reach
But your heart is miles away from me
It’s been a long night, long night and I can’t sleep
I wanna hold you tight, hold you like the old me
I know you’re awake
Your arms like crossbones across your face
And I know what your silence means
It’s been a long night, long night and I can’t sleep
I wanna hold you tight, hold you like the old me
The baby’s crying soft against my skin
That’s how I held our love back then
On those long nights, long nights, we didn’t need no sleep
You would hold me tight, hold me like you were afraid I’d leave
On those long nights, long nights, you and the old me
THE CHAIN (Carey/Burtt)
When I close my eyes, try to see you as a child
Where it leads to is a picture of how I know you now
I know you must have had some softness
I don’t know when you lost it
Maybe I just never came across it
Will I ever be enough for you?
Are you ever gonna see me through
Another lens that lets all our stories go?
Whose battle are you fighting?
Is it gonna take our whole lifetime
To learn what we’ve got to lose?
Will I ever be enough for you?
Your broken language benediction
This unspoken, false competition
When will we ever lay our armor down?
I remember my heart unguarded
Least I think it was when we started
I knew the way there, but I can’t find it now
Will I ever be enough for you?
Are you ever gonna see me through
Another lens that lets all our stories go?
Whose battle are you fighting?
Is it gonna take our whole lifetime
To learn what we’ve got to lose?
Will I ever be enough for you?
I swore I’d be kind this time
I’m watchin’ the arrows fly
All these years of second-guessing
Stingy praise, stony blessings
What if we let go of that cold family chain?
If I’ll never be enough for you
If you’re never gonna see me through
Another lens than the one you’ve got to use
I’m gonna stop the fighting
I don’t wanna spend my whole lifetime
Wondering what I have to do
To ever be enough for you, enough for you
Maybe by freeing me I can free you, too
I KNOW THIS
In the sweet cocoon of our tiny living room
My baby girl grins up at me from the floor
I want to hold her to my chest, but I pull up my mask instead
Blow my love a kiss and fly out the door
Down the subway’s chipping yellow stairs
I used to fight for space, now there’s no one there
I know this will not last
I know this, it cannot, cannot last
The sun, it’ll come back
Behind those sliding doors nothing makes sense anymore
They look to me to tell them what to do
But you can’t train for this, blind shots in the abyss
I’m terrified and I’m supposed to be bulletproof
Down that hallway in the last room on the right
She’s a woman my own age, no one but us to say goodbye
I know this will not last
I know this, it cannot, cannot last
I wanna lay her out in the soft grass
Don’t we all deserve that?
At the end of the day I try to wash it all away
In water so hot it turns my skin red
But we can’t curl up close right when we need it most
I crawl into the cold sheets of the pullout bed
And I know this will not last
I know this is gonna pass, it’s gotta pass
I just hope I’m not made of glass
RISE
I saw the face you made
When you thought I’d looked away
I see the way you clench your hands
Why’s it so hard to say we’re hurting?
Won’t you hand me half your burden?
You think you can’t show me but you can
Hold on a little longer, hold on a little longer
Holding on doesn’t mean that you can’t cry
I know your shattered heart is stronger than when you started
It’s been a long night, but that sun she’s gonna rise
Some days I’m made of lead, locked deep inside my head
With all those voices whispering lies
We’re not made to be alone
Won’t you let me be your home?
Left on the porch light, come inside
Hold on a little longer, hold on a little longer
Holding on doesn’t mean that you can’t cry
I know your shattered heart is stronger than when you started
It’s been a long night, but that sun she’s gonna rise
Hold on, hold on, you’re not alone
Hold on, hold on, you’re not alone
Hold on a little longer, hold on a little longer
Oh, love, we’re gonna make it through the night
I know your shattered heart is stronger than when you started
It’s been a long night, but that sun she’s gonna rise
Hold on, hold on, you’re not alone
Hold on, hold on, you’re not alone
THE DAY YOU WERE BORN
I never knew your mother, she’s been gone so long
I’ll never get to thank her for giving me her son
And all the light you bring me when my darkness comes
And I’m naked as the day I was born
Your father’s heart was rusted, hollowed out, closed
From all the years of silence and the worry and the smoke
And you could have closed your own heart, still it opened like a rose
Naked as the day you were born, my love
Naked as the day you were born
I can get nothing past you, oh, cause you see it all
You know it drives me crazy, and that’s what made me fall
That’s what made me fall
Last night in the kitchen I could hear you in the baby’s room
You were singing in a whisper, then your voices bloomed
To a mile-wide vibrato, two boys just howling at the moon
TEACHER
Why’re you always frowning in the mirror?
Don’t you know your little girl’s watching you?
I wish you could see yourself clearer
How the lines on your face they just let the light through
Every scar on your heart, well, it’s a medal
A badge of pride for every time you grew
Show her she never has to settle
For trying to live up to something that just ain’t true
I wish you could see how she looks at you
How she looks at you
Can’t you see she wants to be just like you?
Just like you
Even if we’ve always known better
We still tear ourselves apart like we’re scared to win
Try and write yourself a love letter
Might not come easy, but I know you can
I wish you could see how I see you
How I’ve always seen you
You know that mirror never tells the truth
She can be so cruel
I know those voices and all their lies
Maybe it’s time we set them all on fire
I wish you could feel my arms around you
If I could just get through
Maybe we could stop those lies from taking root
In your little girl, too
She was born knowing the truth
ALL THAT SPACE
Bonfires on the beach
Laughing on the dock ‘til late
We’d play hide and seek
Marvel at the Milky Way
And all that space
You don’t know you’re free
‘Til you see it slip from your hands
Guided only by dreams
I flew off to distant lands
And all that space
I drank in all that space
Oh, you’re nowhere near the driver’s seat
When it comes to your heart
We’re all at its mercy
Fumbling in the dark
Oh, I fell so deep
Heart-first into this life
I was a mother now
I am a good man’s wife, but I lost my place
I lost my place
All these pages, they’re just flying by
Dreams like ashes in the summer sky
Don’t know if I can save them but I have to try
I don’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry I made you cry
I gotta hold the wheel now
I need you to let me drive
I don’t know if I’m running
Or just running in place
I need the echo of my own four walls
The sun on my face
I have to get more lost now
If I’m gonna be found
I need to stretch these wings out
They’ve only known the ground
If I’m gonna be found
GEORGIA
Georgia, look at us
Out in all directions
Worn down, paper thin
Nothing to hold onto
Don’t soften the lines, please
Leave the whitened skulls floating free Let them remind me
Georgia, look at you
Quietly defiant
It’s his eyes we’re looking through
Was it a mask you had to pry off?
Don’t soften the lines, please
Leave the petals lit from underneath
Let them remind me
Oh, the quiet how it saves me
When I’m inside it I go hazy from the craving
I wonder, Georgia
Were you ever lonely?
The silence spilling out
Endlessly before you
Was it water on the desert?
Or the cold glare of the canvas?
Did it change with the weather?
Oh, the quiet how it saves me
When I’m inside it I go hazy from the craving
THE CYPRESS AND THE OAK
Oh, anyone could see
Even before you fell in deep
Shane behind her in his physics chair
His fingers woven in her chestnut hair
There was something there
Oh, the electricity
Two hearts who knew they were meant to be
All the rest had to find its place
And that takes time and doubt and faith
Oh, you found your way
The Cypress and The Oak
The Sun Shines on you both
You lean out to let in the light
And that’s what makes you grow
You bask in the other’s glow
Your roots intertwined
All the tasks that he can’t stand
She’s right there to take them off his hands
He always does the same for her
Oh, you’ve never shied away from the work
You know what it’s worth
The Cypress and The Oak
The Sun Shines on you both
You lean out to let in the light
And that’s what makes you grow
You bask in the other’s glow
Your roots intertwined
Oh, she’s a dreamer always making plans
He’s a wood tamer with a steady hand
All your adventures, great and small
You’ve grown up together through them all
The Cypress and The Oak
Oh, the Sun Shines on you both
The same two hearts burning bright
You’ve weathered every storm
You’ve made a life that’s yours
Feet on the earth, eyes on the sky
Somehow you’ve always known
Good love’s like coming home
Best friends dancing through this life
WHO I WAS
5:03, the kitchen’s still quiet
The sun is still hiding
I couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d quit trying, I quit trying
It used to be you could see all the way to my heart
Even through the dark parts
Now she’s covered in clippings and clothing and matchbox cars
But I remember who I was
I remember who I was
Blindly brave, a little rough, but just enough
All those brittle nights back in New York City
I was dying to make you see me
It wasn’t your fault, I was dancing with my demons
I know it wasn’t pretty
Oh, I remember who I was
I remember who I was
What we had it was not love
It was just enough
Starved myself for what?
Bargained with a god I didn’t trust
There was nothing that I didn’t try
Holdin’ on long past the end
Can’t will a heart to beat again
Most of the blame was mine
A hundred million ways to hide
Every time I hold my little girl inside my arms
Oh, I’m mending the broken parts in me
Mending the broken parts in me
Mending the broken parts
Uncovering my heart
5 years old, heart open
Arms reaching up, reaching up
Hair golden in the sun, in the sun
I remember who I was
YOU'RE FREE
Now the storm has passed
It left broken glass underneath your feet
You step into the light
Everything is on fire
It’s a strange relief
To lose it all to the wrecking ball
It’s a bad, bad dream
Oh, but you’re free
Everything you have inside a moving van
You just ran up to leave your keys
And now it’s all gone, you’ve been holding on
Maybe now you can breathe
To lose it all to the wrecking ball
It’s a bad, bad dream
Oh, but you’re free
To let it go, let fall the stones
You carried in your sleeves
Maybe now you’ll get some sleep
You’re free, you’re free