Ghost of SLC

It was a Tuesday, I think, when the world began
The smallest things held the future in their hands
The meek and the mild, we came to understand
Were always the biggest part of the plan
I was scurrying back through the field and through the farmland

But the lore before told in verse
That a tortoise supports the whole world, of course
Is no worse a story
Than the boring allegory
That tell us we're not worthy
Tell us we don't mean a thing

Singing hymns that tickle him under his chin
Makes him tremble, and the Earth rumbles above him
When he clears his throat with a little cough, the world tips off
Is he allergic to the aftershocks
Or is the cough just a tell he lost a bet with you
The day before we met
The day before we met you
The day before we met

I left your ghost in Salt Lake City
I left my name on the manifest of the business class section
Of a plane
I left your ghost in Salt Lake City
But I took everything that remained
I took everything that remained

It was a Friday night by the time I held her hand
In the morning, back to Boseman again
In the late September sun
On a beach where my auntie rests in the sand
We carved our names
We carved our names

And we're finally the worse for wear
For the stories we don't care to tell
We don't care to tell
We don't care to tell
We don't care to tell

And my grandmother's ashes sit on the desk
Where I waste all my time
I wonder if she'd be impressed
Or like you if she'd met you
The day before we met
The day before we met you
The day before we met

I left your ghost in Salt Lake City
I left my name on the manifest of a plane heading
Home from New Mexico
I left your ghost in Salt Lake City
And that's the last thing I know
That's the last thing I know
That's the last thing I know

Clearing a place for her ashes in the snow
'Cause that's the only way we go
That's the only way we go