hydrangeas

Intro

(Doo-doo tu doo)

(Doo-doo tu doo)

(Doo-doo tu doo)

(Doo-doo tu doo)

Verse 1

He taught a master class from an empty chair

Father's Day, and the man was a rumour somewhere

Short legs swinging an inch above the floor

Six years old when the first couch swallowed me whole

And the only pool I ever jumped into

Was the one behind my eyes

No one saw me going under

So no one heard me cry

I learned the exact sound a door doesn't make

Graduated with honours in how long a child can wait

Now I find the vacant thing in every room

And make myself at home in there

I'm drawn to him before he even learns my name

I read the exit in a man by the second date

And I'm gone before he's even packed a case

(Well, he gave me the art, I turned it into a career)

Pre-Chorus

And people say I have his nose

I'd say, perhaps, his way of leaving

Funny how the good stuff skips a generation

But the rest showed up when he didn't

(The fig doesn't fall far from the tree)

Chorus

One foot from the tree

That's the whole distance I ran

Packed my life up like a getaway

Set it back down in the same hands

One foot from the tree

Every road out was a loop

Left house with a bag full of toys and some guilt

(Doo-doo tu doo, doo-doo tu doo)

Look what I grew into

Verse 2

My mother learned the goodbye before the greeting

Loved and lost at the perfect temperature

Cool enough to go, warm enough to feel

Twenty-three, a degree and a letdown

Cracked at the source, still feeding what he left behind

The letdown came right on time

The man never arrived

So she learned the cleanest way to love somebody

Was to already be leaving

And she taught it like a table setting

Without knowing what she was teaching

Fork, knife, exit, please

Pre-Chorus

And people say I look like her

Is it the expensive taste in clothing?

Or the way I find a man at the exact distance

Where he needs a therapist more than he needs holding?

(The fig doesn't fall far from the tree)

Chorus

One foot from the tree

That's the whole distance I ran

Packed my life up like a getaway

Set it back down in the same hands

One foot from the tree

Every road out was a loop

Same yard, same shade, same soft dirt

(Doo-doo tu doo, doo-doo tu doo)

Look what I grew into

Verse 3

My grandmother's the one I stayed alive for until now

She must have lived in me for lifetimes, years before

And what comforts me is knowing

What we were, we'll always be

Hydrangeas make a kind of beauty

Out of every crack you see

"Cry inside the shower, sweetheart

That's what it was built to do

Tears and water run together

No one knows which came from you"

She is the blueprint

She is the standing proof

Soft core under under some old flints

Fifty years of holding up that roof

And the only sound that house

Would ever give an account of

Was the water down the hallway

Running far too long

Bridge

My grandfather was an angel

You can ask the family

Softest man to ever hold a cup

Or balance someone on his knee

Kind as any Sunday

Laughing in the doorway

Everybody's evidence

That love should be enough

He had the markets and the mornings

Fresh fruit, the paper

His chair beside the door

The easiest sweetness in the world to hand out

When the heaviest thing you carry

Is a hedge and your own heart

He was gentle the entire time

Down the hall, she ran the water

He was gentle the entire time

While she learned to suffer softer

He was gentle the entire time

(Doo-doo tu doo, doo-doo tu doo)

Outro

(Doo-doo tu doo, doo-doo tu doo)

One foot from the tree

I could swear it was a continent

But the shape of a man who leaves

Turned my whole life into finding bodies

That might fit it perfectly

I can do perfect

Perfect, I can rehearse

Staying was the one part

I never got to learn

(Doo-doo tu doo, doo-doo tu doo)

I was perfect

None of the figs were mine

(Doo-doo tu doo, doo-doo tu doo)

I wasn't perfect

Well, at least I tried

I love you

Thank you

I'm sorry