Blueprint 54

(mm, mm)
Blueprint 54 (you drew a door)
(mm, you never walked through)

Found your tube behind the water heater
Rubber band gone brittle, dust along the lid
Fifty-three before it, every one crossed out
This one you signed, the way you always did
A porch that faced the morning
A window by the sink
A little room marked "Mama's"
In your careful pencil ink

You measured every corner
You never swung a hammer
You kept it rolled and waiting
For a someday in the drawer

Blueprint 54, pencil lines across the floor
You drew a door you never walked through
So I'm building it for you (building it for you)
Blueprint 54, I'll build it true

Every wall you were waiting for (waiting for)
I'll pour the ground you dreamed into
Blueprint 54 (mm, mm)

Spring rolled in on a concrete truck
I pressed your ring into the wet foundation
Mama stood where her room would be
Hands in her coat pockets, patient
She said, "He drew the light first,
Before he drew a single wall"
Now I know why the windows
Were the biggest lines of all

I read your little arrows
I follow where they're pointing
Every line you left me
Is a sentence I am finishing

Blueprint 54, pencil lines across the floor
You drew a door you never walked through
So I'm building it for you (building it for you)
Blueprint 54, I'll build it true

Every wall you were waiting for (waiting for)
I'll pour the ground you dreamed into
Blueprint 54 (mm, mm)

Fifty-four sheets in a cardboard tube
I used to call it stalling
You weren't afraid of building
You were scared to let us down
Now I hold your pencil stub
Right where your eraser stopped

Blueprint 54, Mama's light across the floor
You drew a door you never walked through
Tonight she's walking through (walking through)
Blueprint 54, we built it true

Every wall you were waiting for
The porch faces morning (mm)
Blueprint 54