Too Long Without Hello

I carried all my letters in a drawer that never closed,

Promises I scribbled down, none of which I chose.

I thought there’d always be tomorrow, another chance to write,

But tomorrow came and stole away the faces from my sight.

You younger ones don’t listen, you think a screen will hold,

The warmth of arms around you when the nights grow dark and cold.

But when the years start runnin’, you’ll learn the bitter truth:

A message isn’t mercy, and a call won’t bring back youth.

If you wait too long to say hello,

The next word out is goodbye.

And no paper, phone, or signal

Can explain the reason why.

I buried friends in silence, I buried love in shame,

I thought they’d hear me somehow, but my voice it never came.

Now every empty mailbox is a gravestone that I pass,

Each unread line’s a ghost of mine, carved deep into the grass.

So don’t you take for granted that the world is at your hand,

A body needs a body, not just words across the land.

By the time you think to hold them, you’ll find they’ve slipped away,

And you’ll curse the quiet hours where you thought you’d write someday.

If you wait too long to say hello,

The next word out is goodbye.

And the silence grows so heavy,

It can crush a man alive.

Now the chairs are all empty, the table’s turned to dust,

Every “later” that I counted has betrayed my trust.

I’m alone with all these letters that I never let them know,

And the only friend I’ve got left is the one I didn’t show.

If you wait too long to say hello…

You’ll be alone when it’s goodbye.