Hurricane in a Wedding Band

Hurricane in a wedding band
My ring warns me like thunder

I met you by the hotel windows
Where the rain wrote crooked lines
You laughed at something I was hiding
And the whole bar turned alive

Your hand came close to mine
On the counter
Not touching
Still too near

My wedding band caught in the lamplight
Like a lighthouse saying steer
For one bad minute I forgot
The mortgage the dog the kitchen light

Forgot the way she leaves me coffee
When I work too late at night
Then lightning broke above the street
And shook the silverware

I saw my ring against the bottle
And I knew the storm was there

It wasn't love
It wasn't fate
It was a door
I should not try

But danger speaks with velvet teeth
When lonely learns to lie

Hurricane in a wedding band
Hold the line
Thunder rolling through my hands
One more step
And the house goes down
But my ring warns me like thunder

Oh oh
Hold the line
Hold the line
Gold can shine like warning fire

You said I know that look
You're wearing
I said don't make me
Say your name

The rain kept beating on the awning
Like a crowd outside the frame
Then my phone lit up
Don't forget the bread

A heart beside her text
Such a small domestic mercy
Hit me harder than regret

I pictured her in our old blue sweatshirt
Folding towels on the bed
Pictured all the years we carried
All the storms we never said

You touched my sleeve
And asked me softly
Are you happy
Tell the truth

And every weak place in my body
Wanted permission from you

I could dress it up as needing
I could call the weather real
But vows are not a chain
That holds me

They're a choice I have to feel

Hurricane in a wedding band
Hold the line
Thunder rolling through my hands
One more step
And the house goes down
But my ring warns me like thunder

I won't pretend I was noble
I won't pretend I was stone
Some part of me loved being wanted
Far from dishes debts and home

But wanting is not a compass
And hunger is not a vow
My thumb found the engraving
June the third

I am leaving now

Walking out with nothing broken
Does not mean that I am clean
It means I saw the storm arriving
And chose who I mean to be

Hurricane in a wedding band
Hold the line
Thunder rolling through my hands
I walked out
Before the house went down
I chose the home
That knows my name

Oh oh
Hold the line
Hold the line
Oh oh
Turn around
Turn around

My ring warns me like thunder

I drove home slow
Through flooded streets
The bread still warm beside me

Set my ring down
On the nightstand
Then put it back
Where it belongs

I kissed her sleeping shoulder
The thunder lost my name