Good Grief
Intro
Verse 1
"A couple months," you told me,
"just till things settle down.
When we get out to Seattle,
we'll bring the boys around."
And I believed you every time,
'cause what else could I do?
I backed up, took my running start,
and I ran straight at you.
Pre-Chorus
And you held it so steady,
you looked me in the eye,
and at the very last second...
Chorus
You pulled the football, Lucy,
the way you always do,
and I'm flat on my back in the cold again,
looking up at you.
Every season, every promise,
every "this time, I swear,"
I ran with all I had left,
and nothing was there.
Verse 2
I think some days you meant it.
I think you wanted to.
But you never wanted children
till the children came to you,
and then you couldn't let them go,
and couldn't say it plain,
so you'd set a date, and move the date,
and move the date again.
Pre-Chorus
And you held it so steady,
you looked me in the eye,
and at the very last second...
Chorus
You pulled the football, Lucy,
the way you always do,
and I'm flat on my back in the cold again,
looking up at you.
Every season, every promise,
every "this time, I swear,"
I ran with all I had left,
and nothing was there.
Verse 3
So we sold the house in a hurry,
took whatever they would pay.
A realtor and a falling market
picked our bones along the way.
We ran so fast for Seattle
that we never saw it clear.
We got there with nothing in our hands,
and the boys were never here.
Verse 4
Now you sleep sound in your perfect life,
'cause I've run myself empty,
blowin' out his candles with the breath from my fall,
knocked on my back by the know-it-all.
Bridge
Everybody knows the story.
Everybody's watched me sprawl.
But nobody loves the one holding the football.
They love the kid who ran at all.
Final Chorus
So keep the football, Lucy.
Keep the whole damn field.
I'm done running at a promise
that was never real.
I'll keep my love for them instead.
That's one thing you can't pull away.
You can keep the football, Lucy.
I'm walking off today.
Outro
Good grief.
Good grief.