Lyric

I came back to see what I left behind

Broken paint and pieces of my mind

Chains on the swings breathing in the wind

Graffiti names where our hands had been

All of the colors washed out by the rain

Still I can hear us shouting our names

You said we’d never lose this place

Even when the skyline changed

Now the metal creaks and shakes

Like it’s trying to say our names

Under this rusted playground sky

Every echo that we left refuses to die

I see the ghosts of who we were

Running through the dust and dirt

Under this rusted playground sky

I’m still learning how to say goodbye

Faded signs tilt over broken ground

Plastic bottles in the carousel mound

Footprints carved where we used to race

Now there’s just shadows taking our place

You said we’d never come back here

If we did we’d disappear

But I’m standing in the rust and wire

Feeling every buried fire

Under this rusted playground sky

Every echo that we left refuses to die

I see the ghosts of who we were

Running through the dust and dirt

Under this rusted playground sky

I’m still learning how to say goodbye

I don’t fit the outlines in the sand

Feet too big for the chalk on my hands

But when I breathe the metal in the air

I feel the kid I used to be still there

Maybe I don’t need to stay

Living in that yesterday

I can take the part that shines

Walk it to a different sky

Under this rusted playground sky

Every false goodbye grows smaller with time

I see the ghosts of who we were

Nod their heads and let me turn

Under this rusted playground sky

I walk forward and I don’t ask why

I came back to see what I left behind

Now I know which pieces I’ll keep this time