FULTON STREET I

Found a body at the rest stop

Buried in the woods beneath

The garbage and leaves

Workers clearing overgrowth

Saw hidden in the brush

Just beyond the line of the trees

A jawbone and teeth

Winter into spring on Fulton Street

And cities grow weeds, and cities grow

And cities keep secrets in the trees

In the shadow of the pyramid

The cities grow weeds, the cities grow

By the river and the covered bridge

The cities grow weeds, and I know

All the memories your dreams retrieve

Pick a dress out for the funeral

Hold the vigil in the field, release

Lanterns at night and I saw

On the shoulder of the interstate

When I followed your eyes, when I followed your eyes

All the crosses for the accidents

All the photos and the flowers by the street

Will I ever put flowers by the street?

Will I ever put flowers by the street?

Never needed to live and suffer through the pain

All the tyrannies of grief, if I ever do

Will I even have the strength to do anything?

Could I go and leave flowers by the street?

And I saw signs on the shoulder of the interstate

When I followed your eyes

And I saw lights fading every monument

And the passage of time

If I could just try, could I banish all the pain in you?

Give you everything you need

If I hid rose quartz underneath the mattress, would it help you nights

When you're struggling to sleep, when you're struggling to sleep?

Will I ever be half what I can be?

Can I ever be half what I can be?

If you needed me to be anything

Could I even be half of what you need?

Will I ever be me? Will I ever be me?

If I can take hands to shake you, would you want me to?

If it shook you out of grief, if I gave chase

Summers when you tunneled into nothingness

Would it bring you some release?

If I saw signs on the shoulder of the interstate

When I followed where your eyes went

I saw nights spent after midnight in a eulogy

Which you never got to give

And I saw fenders bent hard on an oak tree

I saw sirens at the scene

I saw cigarettes falling in the tangle of machinery

Between the console and seat

And I saw hands reach, car drift across the center line

I saw it all in my dreams

And I saw leaves hiding bodies in the treeline off the interstate

But I've never put flowers by the street

I've never put flowers by the street

If you need for me to be anything

I could be everything you need

If you need for me to be anything

I could be everything you need

Every monument, every memory

And I've never put flowers by the street