But I never found the words
For the way you make me feel
Like summer stretched out forever
Like every stupid love song I’d ever heard
Was secretly, somehow, real
I wince internally. Delilah doesn’t seem to notice. She’s staring at the boom box like it’s showing her a window into the past.
You showed up in my summer
Smelling like your mama’s flowers
And I know I’m just a kid with a guitar
And more dreams than sense
But here’s what I know about dreamers?—
We don’t know when to quit
So I’ll keep on writing you love songs
’Til one of them finally fits
The chorus comes, and I remember now why I’d been so proud of it. Simple. Maybe too simple. But true.
You’re the song I can’t stop singing
The melody stuck in my head
Every lyric I’ll ever write
Every word I’ve left unsaid
I don’t know where we’ll be tomorrow
Or who we’ll become when we’re grown
But you’re the song I can’t stop singing
And I’ll sing you all the way home
Delilah makes a sound. Half laugh, half sob.
The second verse stumbles a little—I’d clearly gotten emotional recording this and had to restart—but seventeen-year-old me pushes through.
They say summer love won’t last
That we’re too young to know our hearts
But I’ve memorized your laugh by now
And the way you steal my fries
The way you roll your eyes at my bad jokes
