The Same Porch Light Twice

Verse

Porcelain handle cold beneath my thumb

Grandfather's chair still holding the shape of him

Windows fogged soft from winter's last breath

Snowflakes falling sideways past the porch light seam

He used to read to me in the hush and the dark

A whole summer world condensed on a page or two

Now the slippers are mine by the heating vent door

I turn that same chair round for my own little one's ear

Pre-Chorus

The wind off the river brings back every story he told

Someday I'll pass this down too, I'm only a little older than him now

Maybe it's just the porch light humming its song through the years

But sometimes I hear his laughter still moving across these chairs

Chorus

This is my version of summer, warm and slow as the night

I sit in the same rocking chair where he rocked me to sleep till morning

Some things don't change even when we do

Same porch light twice, and now it's on for my children too

Verse 2

Their shoes are different sizes than mine used to be

But the creak of this floorboard is still just like home to me

I read them the same books under blankets so thin

Watching shadows catch in the way they smile when we begin

Her curls fall in his father's favorite chair now too

His laughter has already found that porch swing groove or two

The snow falls soft past the glass, but I see his face in the frost tonight

It's like it never left, just folded up tight and waiting for mine to grow old enough to hold it right

Pre-Chorus

Maybe growing older doesn't mean losing what we had before

Maybe it's learning how much of who he was stays through every door

The porch light flickers soft now — half the wattage, but still true —

Same story different ending is just a version that's new to you

Chorus

This is my version of summer, warm and slow as the night

I sit in the same rocking chair where he rocked me to sleep till morning

Some things don't change even when we do

Same porch light twice, and now it's on for my children too

Bridge

Grandfather's gone by now — the county buried his name

But every winter I find a few more letters from home in this old house drawer

Torn pages turned yellow with time but the words still shine like stars at midnight

Maybe love isn't something we lose when they leave us behind, maybe it just becomes someone else tonight

Chorus

This is my version of summer, warm and slow as the night

I sit in the same rocking chair where he rocked me to sleep till morning

Some things don't change even when we do

Same porch light twice, and now it's on for my children too