Tonight

I picture Steve at the factory, his fingers feel like wire

There's got to be 'bout a million better ways to spend eleven hours

In his head he's already quit, and when he finishes this shift watch him drive

To a place where the sky opens up and he sits with the crickets and writes

Of stars over Washington, and knives in the front

I know you can only eat caterpillars for so long

Before a beautiful butterfly emerges from your mouth

An emerald, an anthem, a song

Jon and Johnny, Eric and I

Set a course for the north but we're only bringing our bikes

See us pedal like devils across state lines

Sing to the crows and shout at the vanishing light

Well the Swiatlowski brothers better get up

Find us lost in a river in southern Vermont

Alone in the forest, singing a chorus, fearless

The hopeful and the unafraid

There's jobs and there's bills and there's brain cells to kill

Tonight let's abandon the bars

There's Cumberland Farms and its parking lot charms

Tonight we'll surrender our cars

And lay in back yards with thrift store guitars

Wear poison ivy like battle scars of a summer where I know we tried so hard

And it wasn't a fight, but we won