Track 5 of the EP Open the Windows · 2025
Arrivals, Gate Four, Hold My Sign
by Wren Hallett
“Cardboard sign in two cold hands, felt-tip letters a little bit slanted. I wrote this one at the arrivals gate waiting for someone I love.”
xinyao · xinyao-tinged folk · hopeful ballad · 3:39
Lyrics
Cardboard sign in my two cold hands Felt-tip letters, a little bit slanted Sliding doors open, then close again Strangers with trolleys, and none of them you Four years of letters and late-night calls A voice on the wire that was always so near Now the arrivals hall hums like a hive And I rehearse every word I have Hold my sign, hold my breath Every door might be the one Every face is almost yours Till the doors slide open, and you are there Hold my sign, hold my heart We have sung this song apart Now the hall is full of morning light And you are walking home to me There is a man with a bunch of flowers A child on her father's shoulders, waving I learn the shapes of other people's joy While my own is somewhere over the sea Then a scarf I know, and a laugh I know A battered case with a sticker or two The whole wide terminal falls away And it is only you Hold my sign, hold my breath Every door was the one Every step was coming to The doors slide open, and you are here Hold my sign, hold my heart We have sung this song apart Now the hall is full of morning light And you are home Hold my sign, you are here Hold my sign, you are here