And You

This year they said you need new phones and new friends

New goals and new bodies and new ways to pretend

Like the world starts over when the calendar flips clean

Like a midnight toast turns you into who you've never been

I made it on black coffee and borrowed grace

A little porch light mercy at the end of the day

Some dogs losing their minds when the girls come through

And you

They say you need answers and closure and proof

A five year plan and a fountain of youth

Money like armor and a headline life

A trophy to prove you made it out alive

I made it this far on half a tank of faith

A couple real friends who stayed anyway

Warm breath in the dark whispering we'll make it through

And you

Folks spent the year buying trucks with payments that ache

Posing for the world in a life they had to fake

Houses like magazines staged for applause

With no quiet rooms where they're safe from the claws

I carried sunsets like stitches and old boots like roots

A hat that fits my history better than a suit

A flagpole holding more than a flag ever knew

And you

I thought I needed to win every fight

To understand every wound before I felt right

To map every mile I'd lost in the night

To measure myself by what wasn't in sight

Turns out I just needed to be weathered not done

To learn to stand still and not come undone

To stop taking inventory of what never came true

And make what I have into something I'd choose

Let them chase what sells and call it success

Let them measure a man by the shine not the stress

I'm just grateful the year didn't take my name

Didn't burn down the porch or the parts that remain

I ain't got much to show but what I got is mine

Warm hands soft lights and a place in your eyes

If all that I reach is midnight with truth

It's me

And you

This year took its swing

Next year swing back