Hold Your Breath Like That 2

Verse

Your old Pontiac coughing on the drive home from town

Windows rolled down catching every gold light in downtown

Radio crackling through a cassette tape worn thin

Twenty years later I still know that song by heart like kin

Dirt roads humming past cornfields gone to seed

Same diner booths where we first said what you mean

Your jacket still smells like cigarette smoke and rain

I kept it all these years just in case it rains again

Pre-Chorus

So why'd I let it gather like dust on a shelf

Why did holding onto love feel like a hard thing to tell?

Chorus

Hold your breath like that, hold it soft and low

Don't let the letting go turn into something nobody knows

Every old scar's still a map of how you used to move me

Keep this close like it's summer, keep it like it never leaves me

Verse 2

I found your photograph folded up behind the mirror

Fifty years old but I swear I saw the same spark in her eyes

Sentimental fool that I am I almost cried

But then the postman rang and I remembered you alive

Silver hair, weathered skin, still carrying that same worn-in stride

Said life's a whole lot bigger than we thought it'd be back when

Didn't apologize for anything, just handed me a picture frame with your name on it in marker

Told me to stop holding onto what's already gone like I could change it

Pre-Chorus

So why do I still feel this lump in my throat at the thought of you

Why does letting go turn out easier than keeping something true?

Chorus

Hold your breath like that, hold it soft and low

Don't let the letting go turn into something nobody knows

Every old scar's still a map of how you used to move me

Keep this close like it's summer, keep it like it never leaves me

Bridge

Maybe letting go don't mean erasing what was ever real

Maybe it means learning to hold onto someone who can actually feel

I'm not crying, I swear, it's just the smoke from dinner settling in my eyes

Chorus

Hold your breath like that, hold it soft and low

Don't let the letting go turn into something nobody knows

Every old scar's still a map of how you used to move me

Keep this close like it's summer, keep it like it never leaves me