City Lights Dont Ask Questions

City lights don’t ask questions

rain on the windshield, midnight radio
They just blur and let me go

I leave your street with the porch light shrinking
blue in the mirror, red on my hands
Phone facedown in the passenger seat
buzzing like it still has a chance
Gas station coffee in a paper cup
burns my tongue at 12:03
A receipt curls up by the gear shift
with your name still folded in me
I don't turn west, I don't call anybody
I let the green lights choose my way
Past shuttered diners and sleeping salons
past pawnshop glass and a laundromat haze
Every window throws back a stranger
Every red light asks me to stay
The dash clock glows like a quiet judge
but it does not say your name
I keep both hands tight on the leather
and let the tires answer pain

I don't need the truth out loud
I don't need a witness tonight
I need a road that doesn't know me
and a skyline made of light

City lights don’t ask questions
They just blur and let me go
I can be lost for a little while
with nobody needing to know

Go, go, let me go

let me go
Red turns green, hurt turns low
City lights don’t ask questions
They just blur and let me go

I cross the bridge where the river is black
with towers shaking in the tide
Headlights stitch a silver seam
through the bruise on the east side
A tunnel swallows every station
Then spits me out in neon rain
For half a mile I forget your voice
For three whole blocks I forget my name
The taxi signs are little suns
The hotel doors breathe gold and heat
Someone kisses under scaffolding
like the world is still sweet
I pass a church with the steps washed empty
A club line bending around the block
Everybody carrying something private
under lipstick, leather, smoke, and clocks

I don't want the morning yet
I don't want to explain the fall
I just want the dark to hold me
without asking why at all

City lights don’t ask questions
They just blur and let me go
I can be lost for a little while
with nobody needing to know

Go, go, let me go

let me go
Red turns green, hurt turns low
City lights don’t ask questions
They just blur and let me go

They just blur and let me go

They just blur and let me go
Go, go, let me go wanted the reason
Mother, friends, the voice in my chest
Did you stop loving, did they betray you,
did you try hard enough for the rest?
But some endings don't fit the questions
Some tears don't want a name
Sometimes the kindest answer
is the one you leave in the lane
I don't need an answer tonight
I need a road that doesn't know me
I need the mercy of passing lights
and a city that lets me be lonely lights don’t ask questions
They just blur and let me go
I can be lost for a little while
with nobody needing to know
City lights don’t ask questions

They just blur and let me go

I can be lost for a little while
with nobody needing to know

City lights don’t ask questions

They don't judge the tears I show
They wash my face in neon mercy
and turn my leaving into road

let me go
let me go
Red turns green, hurt turns low
City lights don’t ask questions
They just blur and let me go

Go, go, let me go

Dawn comes pale behind the towers
The city softens into blue
I pull over near the water
and finally turn off you
My hands are tired, but they are mine
on the wheel, on the way
City Lights Don’t Ask Questions
They just blur and let me go
One last green light in the distance
and I follow it home