Letters in the Lining

[Verse 1]

You left your Bible on the table

Name stitched crooked in the back

Coffee stain on page eleven

You smiled and said

"Just mark my tracks"

August dust on your old duffel

Your mama ironing your patch

I bit my lip there in the doorway

Tried to breathe and not look back

[Chorus]

I kept your letters in the lining of my coat

Every folded word a kind of antidote

Ink all blurred from all the times I read your name

Till the paper thinned and the jacket frayed the same

If love was all it took to bring you home

You'd have come walking up that road

[Verse 2]

First one came from Carolina

Train smoke bleeding through your line

You drew a crooked little sunrise

Said

"Don't forget to watch for mine"

Last one smelled like foreign weather

Red dirt caught along the seam

You wrote

"If I don't make it

Promise me you'll still chase every dream"

[Chorus]

I kept your letters in the lining of my coat

Every folded word a kind of antidote

Ink all blurred from all the times I traced your name

Standing by the window

Listening for a plane

If love was all it took to bring you home

You'd have come walking up that road

[Bridge]

They brought your tags back in a small white box

Chaplain clearing out his throat

Neighbors left a pie and awkward thoughts

I just held on to your notes

And when they asked if I would lay you down

Under stone on sacred ground

I whispered

"He's already here

Every time the leaves come down" (oh)

[Chorus]

I keep your letters in the lining of my coat

Threads pulled thin but I still feel you in my bones

Read them slow when winter cuts straight through my skin

Hear your laugh in every scratch of rusted ink

If love was all it took to bring you home

You'd be here warming up this cold

[Outro]

So I wear you

Every season

Paper ghosts

Stitched with reason

I keep your letters in the lining of my coat

And I walk on down this road