Lyric

Engine still running

Window cracked open

Parking lot lights

Flicker in blue

Your hands still resting

On ten and two

The dash clock glows

0:48

Neither of us

Moves too late

A petal sticks

To the windshield

Neither of us

Says how we feel

If we turn off

The engine now

We’d have to choose

Somehow

The call we didn’t answer

Still sitting in between

Not loud, not over

Just hanging in the spring

The call we didn’t answer

Didn’t break apart

It only keeps the engine running

Somewhere in the dark

You reach for the radio

Then let it go

The air comes in

Soft and slow

Your phone lights up

A name I know

You flip it down

Like we don’t know

The screen goes black

But not the truth

We stay right here

Inside this proof

If we step out

And close the door

It won’t be

Like before

The call we didn’t answer

Still resting on the dash

Not goodbye

Not meant to last

The call we didn’t answer

Is quiet, but it’s there

Like headlights cutting

Through the spring night air

You say, “It’s late.”

I say, “I know.”

But neither of us

Starts to go

The heater hums

A steady sound

Like something

Still unbound

The call we didn’t answer

Is breathing in this car

Not close enough

To go too far

The call we didn’t answer

Won’t let us move

We stay right here

With nothing to prove

The call we didn’t answer

Fading, but not gone

The engine still running

Till the night is done

You don’t turn the key

Neither do I