Rafters

Ceiling tiles are falling down
Selling secrets between now
And defeated pasts on last defense
The walls can't keep the warm in here
This busted house of cans of beer
Aluminum, some plaster and some fear
There are her bones, there are the fossils
There near the sewer pipe
There, between floors, between wars
There on a two-by-four
Harmonic notes still humming from her lyre
Just set my little soul on fire

In the shape of my latest sin
In the wake of soon moving on
Though this house is crumbling down
She's whispering her last words now
Did he love her there on the floor?
When he pressed his mark in that knotted board
Pressed an oath in that knotted board
Just two names, one shape, tangled minor chords
A heart around their sweet accord
Wrapped around their love and stored
The first day, got away, then so many more
A decade past, and then a score
And now winter falls, decay and dark creating art
Showing the world just where you really are

Oh, sweet Louise
Since eighty-three
While paneling and pyramids fall down
Oh, sweet Louise
Now I believe
In rafters in this beat-up, blue-neck town
In turning tides, in me
In hidden vows

There are her bones, there are the fossils
There near the sewer pipe
There are her bones, there are the fossils
Unfinished song I complete
There on his throne, here in their castle
My Pygmalion ivory
Here on my own, like this home
The landlord collects his fee
I'm growing old, I'm so alone
These ceiling tiles are falling down
I'm seeing what I've got to see

Oh, sweet Louise
Since eighty-three
While paneling and pyramids fall down
Oh, sweet Louise
Now I believe
In rafters in a rugged Worcester town
In turning tides, in me
In hidden vows