Sixteen

All the paths you've took to get you here
Or the ones you didn't take
Roll
They told you
Roll up straight to heaven's heavy gate
Find Saint Peter at the doorway
In a tall booth waiting

And I climb the steps behind you in anticipation
To see my future
From the rooftop of a spiral staircase
Barely 20
Watched my whole life in a foreign nation
And chased that fading dream away
I slept for days and days

When I woke up in your apartment
Could you see it on my face?
That I didn't recognize the room
That I thought it was some neighbor's place
25
With all my years piled (?)
I lay bеtween your knees
And fell asleep that way for weeks

When I woke up on Lunar Nеw Year
It was 2023
Rabbits running in the alley
Lion dancing in the street
And past the teeth on everyone
I saw my old self taking shape
Hover
Ghost-like in the flames
And in the smoke he slowly dissipated

If you could go and take your pictures off the wall
Would you do it?
Would you take them all... down fast?
Try to break
Take them all into your house
Don't be airing us out (?)
If you wanted to
Would you take them all down?

(Would you take it all?)
(Would you take it all?)

Would you make preparations for a funeral
Stage it how you wanted to go
If you knew that you
Would you take them all down
Would you change
And tell a story how you wanted it told

(I wish you wanted more [?])
(I wish you wanted more [?])

Well did you think you'd end up on the pavement
Spend drunk in the basement
Then sleepwalking up all through the house?
Nights on the rooftop
With strangers-filled places
That sunrise we watch it
We're blind (?)

I'll mention in a ____(?)
A quiet suburban street
Or highways in Manhattan
20 children that might feed
Where would I be if I had never gotten better at all?
Where would I be if you decided not to wait up for me?
Who would I... be?

Take the pictures down from off the wall
I wanna see it all
Remember everything
I take the pictures down

The dates in our apartment
That skylight in the bedroom
The blooming winter garden
My life in color with you
I keep the pictures hanging
I'm writing captions out
I'm framing every single moment going forward

Where would I be if I had never gotten better at all?
Where would I be if I had never gotten better at all?
What would they say if there's a hundred words for everything? (?)
What of my life has brought me (?)
I keep the pictures hanging
(I keep the pictures hanging)