What To Keep And What To Throw Away

Album: Ashes and Roses (2012)
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  • These are your instructions
    Should you choose to follow
    Sit down with pen and paper
    Begin with something hollow
    Like the last words that he offered
    No kind of explanation
    They only take up space here
    You do not need to save them

    Open up the closet
    Find his winter coat there
    Check inside the pockets
    Find a crumpled note there
    It says "milk and Sunday paper"
    And a heart smudged in blue ink
    Fold it up and box it before you've time to think

    Sundays are the hardest
    Avoid familiar back roads
    Erase the old phone numbers
    Delete all the photos
    And those you haven't heard from
    Will come as no surprise
    They made their calculation
    When they chose a side

    These are your instructions
    When you become reclusive
    When old friends say they miss you
    When sleep becomes elusive
    Fill up every journal
    Empty every shoebox
    Burn the lists and letters
    Sweep out all the old thoughts
    Shake off all the covers
    Throw every window open
    Stand here in your bare feet
    Welcome in the morning
    These are your instructions
    When grace has left you stranded
    When you are lost and wounded
    Bleeding and abandoned

    Use a tourniquet for pressure
    Let time do it's healing
    Say prayers for good measure
    When you think you've lost all feeling
    Now walk into the guest room
    The last place he was sleeping
    See the outline on the pillow
    Smooth it without weeping

    One last final walk through
    Now move the bags and boxes
    From front porch onto back seat
    Haul away the losses
    These are your instructions
    If you choose to follow
    Stop and take a big breath
    Begin with something hollow Writer/s: MARY CARPENTER
    Publisher: Sentric Music
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 1

  • Red Pierce from TacomaWhen Ashes and Roses first came put, I didn't play it much; it wasn't the MCC I was used too. My wife of 43 years passed in '18 and the album made sudden sense. For a few months I was playing it in the house, the car...everywhere. Probably kept me from. anything stupid. Well, stupider. Thanks for this CD and all the beautiful, funny and insightful music all these years. Red
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