Track 2 of the single Better Without the Weight of You · 2018
The Hoops Are Dark Now
“Silver, still and empty after the last game. I wanted the piano to sound like a hall holding its breath.”
art song · art song · piano ballad · 4:34
Lyrics
The gym doors close with a soft little sigh The hall is silver and still I left my ribbon on the second bench And the echo of us lingers there still The scoreboard sleeps with its dark glass eyes The floor holds the shine of our feet Somewhere a slow song is humming through the beams Where the evening and the quiet meet The hoops are dark now But I can still hear the music Turning round the room like a gentle tide Held in the rafters, kept in the boards The hoops are dark now And I am not ready to leave So I stay one more breath in the light that was ours Soft as a held note, soft as goodbye You said that we would remember it all I said that I would, and I do The paper crowns, the borrowed shoes The way the night leaned into you The hoops are dark now But I can still hear the music Turning round the room like a gentle tide Held in the rafters, kept in the boards The hoops are dark now And I am not ready to leave So I stay one more breath in the light that was ours Soft as a held note, soft as goodbye Let the cleaners come with their quiet mops Let the morning take the floor I'll carry the song in my pocket like chalk And draw it on every door The hoops are dark now But I can still hear the music Turning round the room like a gentle tide Held in the rafters, kept in the boards The hoops are dark now And I am ready to go For the song is mine and the night was kind Soft as a held note, soft as goodbye Soft as goodbye Soft as goodbye