One More Chorus

One More Chorus
The Open Door is closing tonight
One more chorus for the road

Old red sign in the rain says last night open
Crooked O flickers like it knows
Thirty-seven winters in the front-room smoke
and the landlord's letter folded by the phone
Marty wipes the bar with the same blue towel
Janet pins a photo near the till
Little league shirts, wedding rice, county fair tickets
all taped up where the mirror lost its silver
There's a beer ring dark as a halo
on the booth where Tommy asked Grace to dance
A quarter jammed in the dead jukebox
like somebody still believes in chance
Nobody says the word forever
Nobody says the place is gone
We just stack our coats on the broken pinball
and pretend the night is long

The dartboard clock keeps stuttering
Last call waits behind the bell
The band counts in with borrowed courage
and the whole room tells itself

One more chorus for the road
Raise your glass and let it roll
If these walls could sing, they'd sing us home
One more chorus for the road
One more chorus for the road
Raise your glass and let it roll
If these walls could sing, they'd sing us home
One more chorus for the road

for the road
Oh-oh, don't let it go
don't let it go
Oh-oh, sing it slow
One more chorus for the road

The drummer's nephew knows three chords
but he hits them like the town depends
The singer forgets the second verse
so the mailman shouts it back again
Pool balls sleep in the corner pockets
chalk dust blue on a widow's hand
Two old rivals share one cigarette
outside beneath the Coors sign stand
Somebody finds a cardboard crown
from New Year's nineteen ninety-nine
Puts it on the bartender laughing
for the first time all night
Grace kisses Tommy by the restroom hallway
same booth, same scar in the floor
Their granddaughter films it on a cracked phone screen
and cries without knowing what for
The bass amp coughs, the ceiling leaks
Rain taps hard on the tin back door
But when the chorus comes around
no one is lonely anymore

The dartboard clock keeps stuttering
Last call waits behind the bell
Marty lifts his towel like a white flag
then sings louder than himself

One more chorus for the road
Raise your glass and let it roll
If these walls could sing, they'd sing us home
One more chorus for the road
One more chorus for the road
Raise your glass and let it roll
If these walls could sing, they'd sing us home
One more chorus for the road

for the road
Oh-oh, don't let it go
don't let it go
Oh-oh, sing it slow
One more chorus for the road

I Just the room breathing
Marty rings the bell one time
and nobody moves
The tap lights blink like small old stars
while rain writes names on every car

Turn the lights down
Turn the lights down
Lift the last round
If the sign goes dark
we'll be the sound
Turn the lights down
Turn the lights down
Lift the last round
Everybody in now
Sing it out loud

One more chorus for the road
Raise your glass and let it roll
If these walls could sing, they'd sing us home
One more chorus for the road

for the road
To the hands that built this floor
For the names carved under table four
Raise it up before we go
before we go
The door may close, but the song won't know
One more chorus for the road
don't let it go

The neon quits, the rain keeps falling
Marty locks the Open Door
We stand outside still softly singing
one more chorus for the road
One more chorus, one more chorus
One more chorus, one more chorus