Paper Cranes

Paper cranes along the rail

Folded from receipts and old motel mail

I left them there at 6:12

While the station shook the morning from itself

You said, "I'll call when I get there"

Then the line went quiet in the stairwell air

Now I count the ties from here to gone

As if enough of them could pull you home

Carry me over the broken line

Carry me over the broken line

Don't let our last words dissolve into static

Say my name like it still belongs with yours

Before this train turns distance automatic

Your blue cup's still beside the sink

Chipped at the rim where you used to drink

I kept the receipt, I kept the key

I kept the version of you that still comes home to me

The clock above Gate 9 won't stop

Turning red numbers through everything I lost

And every crease in a paper wing

Looks like a road you took without me

Carry me over the broken line

Don't let our last words dissolve into static

Say my name like it still belongs with yours

Before this train turns distance automatic

If you're coming back, come messy

With the coffee stain and the wrong train schedule

Come with your coat half-zipped

And the apology crushed in your pocket

I'm still here beside the railing

Hands gone cold, watching the tracks run west

Trying not to make one folded bird

Carry everything we never said

Carry me over the broken line

Leave one seat where the hard words used to be

Say my name like it still belongs with yours

And I'll be there when the doors release me

Paper cranes along the rail

Little white letters

The wind can't mail