Seven Conversations in a Kitchen Built for Two (Cousin Love)

Lyrics

[Intro]
Yeah, I remember.

[Verse 1]
First conversation: we are seven, maybe eight.
Under the yellow formica table, a secret state.
Your scraped knee, my loose tooth.
The muffled thunder of the grown-ups' truth.
July, 1996.
We swore we'd never tell them about the window, or the sticks we used as swords.
Your glass of milk sweating rings on the linoleum floor.
That was the first one I remember, anyway.

[Chorus]
And we're back again, leaning on the same chipped counter.
Different year, same refrigerator hum.
The world outside gets louder, but in here, we're younger.
In this kitchen built for two, where everyone would come.

[Verse 2]
Second conversation, I think it was Christmas '03.
You had a Discman, you played me a song I'd never heard.
We were fifteen, all awkward limbs and unspoken words.
Talking about getting out, seeing the highway, being free.
You drew a map to California on a paper napkin.
The ink bled from the condensation of your Coca-Cola can.
And for a minute, standing by the stove, it felt like a real plan.

[Chorus]
And we're back again, leaning on the same chipped counter.
Different year, same refrigerator hum.
The world outside gets louder, but in here, we're younger.
In this kitchen built for two, where everyone would come.

[Bridge]
I guess they never measured for the chaos, for the holidays.
For the cousins hiding out from aunts in a hundred different ways.
It was always too small for the whole clan.
Barely room for a woman and a man.
But it was always just big enough for you and me, and another lukewarm iced tea.
The only place we didn't have to be brothers, didn't have to be sons.
Just... us.

[Verse 3]
Conversation seven, or maybe seventeen.
Last Thanksgiving.
You showed me pictures of your daughter on a phone screen.
We talked about mortgages, and the price of gas, and getting old.
A story half-finished, a memory half-told.
Before your flight was called, before we had to go.

[Outro]
Still the same counter.
Still the same hum.
I'll see you in the summer.
If you come.