Lyrics

Dedicated to Erin Barcellos McKinley and to the 172 people whose names are whispered into this song.
With thanks to the Barcellos Family.
lyrics
Sometimes depression
Gets so heavy in my hands
Like the world is coming down
And I gotta save it but I can't

And I wonder how you could dance
With the morphine bag over your shoulder
Holding your phone like it was a lover
Gazing into our eyes through its lens

I wish I could remember what song it was playing
At that house up in Marin
When we were together and dancing
And you asked me to keep talking to you
Talking out loud to you after you were gone
I promise, I said, I promise I will
And I do, but not enough
No one speaks the names of the dead

In your last few months
You walked the hills of San Francisco
Taking polaroids of strangers
You’d sign your name with a heart
And gift them their moment
Seen through the eyes of a woman
seen through the eyes of a human
who knows exactly what there is to lose

And I wonder how you could dance
When the things you were doing just to survive
Would've killed a man twice your size
And you cried but it didn't stop you

So I'm standing at the mirror
Grief is heavy on my eyes
But when I think of you dancing
I see the beauty in the lines
I feel the softness of my arms
I hear a train passing by
We will lose this all in time
Better notice it while we’re alive