Mary Chapin Carpenter

The Things That We Are Made Of

I remember driving down the rutted roads late at night

Following the summer moon bright as any pair of headlights

I felt the air on my face and the night pressed inside my palm

a moment captured in a place this memory stays strong

Oh my darling oh my love

The things that we are made of

And I remember feeling I’m alive and in no need of saviors

If the past’s another country I’m at the border with my papers

Where is your heart if not inside you where is home or are you lost

where is love if not beside you I had no answers but they let me cross

Oh my darling oh my love

The things that we are made of

Like the silence of my shadow when the twilight world is calling

The loneliness that knows me by the cadence of my walking

And the scar upon my elbow and the sound of my own breathing

My reflection in a window and the way I’m always leaving

And I remember wishing for some other life than this one I’ve claimed

How often have I been convinced how eagerly I’d make that trade

Then all at once I see your face and the summer night and the open door

dimmer now but not erased and I know what these are for

Oh my darling oh my love

The things that we are made of