Two Steps Forward

In the middle of September, we entertained the thought
Of falling into rabbit holes and never coming out
In the garden of a girl whose mum is friends with Elton John
So she kept telling us

But still
We slipped a year or so behind ourselves, the time's already gone
When people were just people, not the jobs that they perform
Our songs were just a thing we did with melodies and chords
Now you're available in all good record stores

But I knew you best
Back when love was just a feeling that ran out between my legs
Onto the back of my dress
Onto the clothes that I was wearing

Oh, when I was a child I was expected to believe
In something up above that no one touches or can see
But they tell me that unless you're looking out of magazines
Well then, you don't exist
But I knew that you were real before I read it in an interview today
Before I used you as a surface, did a line across your face
In the toilet of a girl who's sitting outside
Dropping names like they were carpet bombs
She knows everyone

But I knew you first
Back when love was underneath you
With my fingers in the dirt
You said, 'I'll stop if it hurts'
You said, 'I'll stop it if it's scaring'
You said 'You know that I can stop this any time
If you think that it is tearing'

And I think of you when the leaves are brown
I think of leaves that I have felt
Against my body on the ground
I think of places where we could go to now
Until they find us, 'til they catch us
'Til they wake us and we drown
Until I know where I am
I'm in a garden half-remembering your fingers in my hand
Were like a book made of sand

And it's the middle of September, your image starts to fade
To the one that they have printed on the 27th page
Don't like to read these things, you know I do it anyway
I have no choice
I have no choice, I say

And I go out in the garden, where the birds begin to sing
And I'm troubled by the thought of all the daylight they will bring
And I think that I will let somebody take me home again
'Cause if I knew you at all
Then my love was underneath you, making puddles on the floor
And I'm asleep to the thought of two people walking two steps forward
Always to the lives they've chosen
Clicks and hums and sirens in the sun