American Dream Trajectory

Between sips you say, "There's nothing heroic about

Growing up like you did, surviving somehow"

I held you at seventeen

Baby, you haven't changed a bit

Still wearing a face of steel, still feeling all of it

When I think of your dad, yeah, it chokes me up

And I wasn't the one going through all of that stuff

Are you there right now?

That sixty-degree summer you spent out west

Flipped your car, broke your heart, resurrected a friend

Are you there right now?

You called it February whiplash

When the power goes out, it don't come back

So your eyes adjust to living in the dark

Your eyes give up on seeing who you are

Headstrong, anxious, and healing slow

You're paying your debts, clawing back control

You'd like to love somebody to a fault

You'd like to feel like you deserve it all

When I think of us young, it makes me sick

I wake up wishing that we were together when we were kids

Are you there right now?

The fatal flaws of the people that you have needed to breathe

Destroying your American dreams, rejecting me

Are you there right now?

Oh-oh, we don't gotta talk about before

Oh-oh, we don't gotta talk about before

Oh-oh, we don't gotta talk about before

Oh-oh, we don't gotta talk about before

Though we'll have to stop our running while we're stunted and afraid

Taking stock of what we've lost, there's so much life that remains

Are you there right now?

The fatal flaws of the people that we don't gotta be

Destroying your American dreams, rejecting me

Are you there right now?