The Glory Years

You are my favorite miracle When the world finally ends, only then will our destinies doubt us When we spin off the edge of our steps and our couches When just the hidden songs are left On our cassettes and our albums Can we expect that something better surrounds us When we exit our houses? The death of my childhood would unfold in notches It was a caving social comet of a stolen promise So how'd we grow up but not grow up into Who we said we'd grow up into? We said we knew someday we'd grow up beyond this Now I'm as lonely as the town drunk who only Knows he's a man when he's holding A handful of soco and daniels Sitting at the bar calling all the college girls over To sing them Billy Joel karaoke from a broken piano I don't wanna end up just like him I'll keep on writing till my bookmark bends I'll keep on writing till I lose All that's left of my good-heart friends Until I've spent all that's golden and that took our breaths If only it matters, I'll probably take the loneliest stance On this unholy abandoned home to mean we always'll carry it With the strength of an ocean I'll go like soldiers in battle And looking back over my shoulder see the roads that we travel Without the worst nights In my glory years Without the holes in the rooftops we climbed on Without the dead nights In the adventure life Without the memories we'd never bet our lives on How would I know Whoever I am Without the long drives To anywhere that we were always miles from If these are the best of times I don't want mine back The glory years I always thought I'd have are here So for anybody who feels like they still have The best years of their life left to live I'm right there with you We nicknamed my best friend Ghost For all the haunts he'd have There's more to life Than the glory years that we thought we'd have We formed a pact for down the road in case we lost track Of dollar diner coffee calls and screen porch menthol packs If you end up somewhere in an office selling car glass And I still live at home in five years, let's get our maps And tape 'em to the window seat, we could travel north fast Small town kids who learned to fight from our divorced dads Know the rules of separation like our palms Tired-eyed of watching burning houses from our lawns If only we could find a weight in vacant distant summers And fall in deep enough love We'd make our parents miss each other One story starts for every one that never made it I kissed my first girlfriend on an air mattress that levitated I used to hate the ground, its roots and holes were bound to fail But making out in UFOs at the Orange County Fair Made me feel like something from another world would save us Or some great tragedy would come along to turn my pages Maybe I was waiting for a battlefield to earn my place in So looking back at us the world can see we were courageous But all our worry signs and torn up lives I won't ignore Fell in love too many times at least we got to know our floors I don't plan to ever get the moments we've been hoping for A couple years later, fast forward Now I know I won't try I know I won't try I won't spend my whole life Looking for an answer that I won't find Now I know I won't find it, damn right I won't find it I'mma take potential, unbury it like I'm gold mining I'll take my pen and I'll press it in Pray my penmanship resurrects my depressions My friendships, my on-my-own crisis Because I'm only twenty-two How am I wishing for the wisdom That's been missing in collision with my old life I said I'm only twenty-two, How the fuck am I wishing for what's Missing from an old life? Without the worst nights In my glory years Without the lows in the rooftops we dived from Without the dead nights In the adventure life Without the people that you never could rely on Man how would you know Whoever you are Without the long drives Down the black midnight roads that we almost died on These are the best of times and I don't want mine back The glory years I always swore I'd have aren't here But I got wrongs, I got roves, I got seams I got long intermissions where I lost my feet I got my best friends behind me, yeah I brought my team They're in the background singing like that's "all I need" The orange lights, the ocean gasping, this all will pass If my quarter life flashes short enough to make my story last There's more to write than the pouring rain and the autumn grass There's more to drive to than all the places you'd wanna crash There's more to life than the glory years That you thought you'd have And I don't know where I am I'm just lost in my glory years