Seven Ways to Let You Down

I can find out what you love

And mirror mirror it all

Back to you

That movie, this tv show

That album that changed your life

Then once you’re hooked

On our similarities

My identity will flip like—that

Saying I never really liked this

Or I’ve gotten tired of that

Or maybe I’ll just be honest and say

That I lied to get what I wanted

That I created the person I knew you desired

So I’d be too hard to turn down

That’s one way

To let you down

I can stay at work too late

Climbing towards another raise

Trying to prove I’m not too young

To get as far

As the guy ahead of me is

And while my eye’s on another prize

Time slips by and you’re wondering

If you’d rather just have me cheat with a guy

Instead of with presentations

And phone calls with China

That’s how I could let you down

I could sit next to you

Never saying a word

Watching mindless tv shows

And pretending not to notice

The alcohol on your breath

I could keep your problems yours

And my problems mine

And tell myself that only you can help yourself

Never asking if you had a bad day

Or letting my hand go across the couch

Just so it can go over yours

I could stay cold

And only warm up to the stuff

That’s outside of you

I could hang you out to dry

And that would let you down

I could stay out way too late

Sitting in parking lots

Talking to friends in other states

Trying to imagine another life for myself

Away from here, away from you

Fresh because I don’t know how to go back

How to fix what’s broken in this

I could talk to people thousands of miles away

And not say a word to you

And that would let you down

I could wait for you to bail

Clean out shit

And the booze in the fridge

Tell me you’ve had enough

Maybe break some stuff on the way out

Wait for me chase after you

And keep you waiting

That’s how I could let you down

I could dance with other boys

I could flirt and text and sext

And tell them all my problems

All the shit that you don’t know

I could philosophize my bullshit

So it almost seems like logic

Dress it up to look like sense

And pretend it’s not a mess

I could give myself to everybody

But the people who actually want me

Because all I think I need

Is something to prove

And someone to prove it to

And while I’m doing all that

I’m letting down you

I could let a life go by

And wait until it does

To bring up what we had

And what this is

And what you thought it was

I could hold my breath

And wait until you out

Because it feels like

That’s what I’m doing now

I’m doing a million things

And nothing

Except letting you down