Mason Jennings

Pittsburgh

Mason Jennings


My mom would give me twenty
And say "stay out till dawn"
When her boyfriend was over
And they wanted me gone
I would walk through the woods
To the old graveyard
And roll my own Tops
And think two kinds of thoughts
Are we high enough to clear these trees
I don't know

That was the summer
Dave's girlfriend O.D.d
She died in the bathroom
At a party down the street
I went to see him the next night
He had a new tattoo
He was watching home movies of her
His face was wet
He looked so confused
They had a funeral for her
The preacher said she was with the lord
There were lots of pictures of her
Taped to a poster board
Are we high enough to clear these trees
I don't know
Are we high enough to clear this place
I don't know

Grocery stores in the middle of the night shine their own kind of light
High school halls and shopping malls never fit me right
But my heart would swing free
Like a lasso from my hand
When I'd hear that sound
And put the pedal down

I wound up that Fall
In a hospital
On the suicide wing
With a lot of people thinking one thing
They had a sign on the wall
It said 'no touching at all'
There were screams in the night
Nurses running down the hall
On the night that I got there
They showered me and searched me hard
Then they took me to my little room
Overlooking a graveyard
When I opened my eyes
I was strapped to the bed
There was a needle in my arm
Part of me was gone
Then they took us outside
In our slippers and gowns
To play basketball on the blacktop
The ball just bounced till it stopped
Are we high enough
To clear these trees
I don't know
Are we high enough to clear this place
I don't know

Grocery stores in the middle of the night shine their own kind of light
High school halls and shopping malls never did me right
But my heart would swing free
Like a lasso from my hand
When I'd hear that sound
And put the pedal down

When the leaves were wet
Behind the old duplex
We used to run at night
Naked through the trees
And you would lean back against me
And I would try to stay soft
We'd listen to the engines
As the planes took off