Where you still are

We grew up on a gravel road, radio low

Mama yelling supper when the sun hung slow

You were two years older, twice as brave

Taught me how to throw a punch, how to be okay

Then the word came down like a winter rain

Doctor’s office quiet, couldn’t say your name

You cracked a joke just to make us laugh

Said, “Don’t look at me like that, I ain’t done yet, man”

You’re in the tailgate dust, in the midnight stars

In the cracked vinyl seat of my old truck car

You’re in every song that makes me choke

Every Sunday drive, every bad joke

Yeah, the stone says when and the stone says where

But you ain’t gone, brother

You’re just everywhere

Hospital nights and a borrowed bed

Counting ceiling tiles, things we never said

You said, “Promise me you won’t let this steal your fire

Live enough for both of us, if I get tired”

You’re in the tailgate dust, in the midnight stars

In the cracked vinyl seat of my old truck car

You’re in every prayer I don’t say out loud

In the way I still look for you in a crowd

Yeah, the stone says when and the stone says where

But you ain’t gone, brother

You’re just everywhere

Cancer took your body, but it missed your name

Missed the way you loved us, missed the flame

Missed the mark, missed the truth

Didn’t take the best part of you

You’re in the laugh I hear when the room’s too still

In the way I grip the wheel going over that hill

You’re in the scars, you’re in the scars I wear

Proof that love don’t end with a final prayer

Yeah, the stone says when and the stone says where

But you ain’t gone, brother

You’re just everywhere

So I’ll raise one up to the sky tonight

Say your name, let it feel alright

I’ll keep going like you told me to do

Until the day I finally catch up to you