[Intro — distant, almost inaudible] Someone left the weather running In an empty room upstairs The curtains keep applauding For a show that isn't there I brought a paper lantern For the middle of the day It burned through both my hands Then politely blew away [Verse 1] We laid the blanket underneath A television sky With counterfeit constellations Pinned behind our eyes The grass was growing sideways Through the seams of my shoes And every little flower Had something left to lose I watched the horizon buckle Like a tired folding chair While the hills rearranged themselves To make the climb look fair There was a staircase in the distance Made entirely of stone I climbed until the valley Started sounding like a home [Pre-Chorus] Someone whispered, don't romanticize it Someone else said, don't go back I couldn't tell which voice was mine Through all the static in the black [Chorus — enormous fuzz / layered voices] It's only a picnic if you never leave the blanket Only paradise if you photograph the gate I kept mistaking every summit for an ending Every open door for somewhere I could stay So pass the matches, pass the weather Let the whole horizon cave If the mountain wants another I'll become another wave [Verse 2] I found a fossil in my pocket From a summer I forgot It still remembered being something I apparently was not The river wore a silver jacket And refused to tell me why It carried every fallen thing Without asking it to die I met a man beneath a streetlight Who had my face from years ago He said, you've been walking backwards I said, I know Then the street began ascending Though the buildings stayed the same And every window held a version Of somebody else's name [Pre-Chorus — whispered, building] There are teeth inside the roses There are mirrors in the rain There are little bits of heaven Growing underneath the pain And if I sound like I'm laughing It's the echo of the fall Some things only become beautiful After they've become impossible [Chorus — louder / chaotic] It's only a picnic if you never leave the blanket Only paradise if you photograph the gate I kept mistaking every summit for an ending Every open door for somewhere I could stay So pass the matches, pass the weather Let the whole horizon cave If the mountain wants another I'll become another wave [Bridge — stripped-down, woozy] The mountain wasn't cruel It never promised to be kind It simply occupied the distance While I occupied my mind And maybe that's the trick of it The oldest joke in town— You spend your whole life climbing Just to realize You were never going up You were becoming ground [Instrumental — feedback / tape warble / ghost choir] [Ghost Harmonies] Becoming ground... Becoming ground... Becoming— [Final Chorus — euphoric distortion] It's still a picnic if the blanket's torn to pieces Still a garden when the flowers learn to rust Still a sunrise if you watch it through the windshield Still a body when it's carrying too much I don't need the hill to love me I don't need the sky to change Let the whole world lose its balance I'll just learn another way And if I disappear tomorrow Leave the basket where I fell There are worse things than the mountain There are worse things than yourself [Outro — fading, nearly spoken] Someone left the weather running. Nobody went upstairs. The blanket's still there. The grass grew through it. And somewhere past the tree line Something beautiful keeps refusing to arrive.
