[Intro]
[hummed hook, soft]
(mmm-mm)
Mmm, mm-mm-mm
Mmm, mm-mm
(mmm-mm)
[Verse 1]
Passport creased
Coffee on the boarding pass
Gate change flashing on the glass
I’m late again
Carry-on dreams
Stuffed in a overhead bin
Every city that I’ve ever been
Names in the wind
Runway rain
Stripe lights streak and smear
You said, “Call me when you land”
But I disappear
Seat belt sign
Tiny window, giant sky
All these miles between “hello”
And “goodbye”
[Chorus]
She hums to the engine climbing
Soft over metal and rain
Low like a prayer in my headphones
While we’re chasing the vein of the plane
Taxiway to heaven, we’re rising
Clouds drawing maps in the blue
I’m up where the world looks honest
But I’m still flying circles ‘round you
(hmm, hmm-mm)
I’m still flying circles ‘round you
[Verse 2]
Tray table down
Pen shakes with the tiny bumps
Write your name in the margin once
Then I cross it out
Plastic cup waves
Ice taps like a nervous hand
Every turbulence makes me think
This is how it ends
Over the wing
Flaps tilt, the horizon bends
Life feels lighter when you’re high
Harder when you descend
Pilot talks
Voices crackle through the haze
I can’t hear over her humming
But I catch the phrase
[Pre-Chorus]
“Thank you for choosing this journey”
I laugh ‘cause I never choose
Every departure’s a story
Where I’m built to lose
[Chorus]
She hums to the engine climbing
Soft over metal and rain
Low like a prayer in my headphones
While we’re chasing the vein of the plane
Taxiway to heaven, we’re rising
Clouds drawing maps in the blue
I’m up where the world looks honest
But I’m still flying circles ‘round you
(oh, oh, oh)
Still flying circles ‘round you
[Verse 3]
Red-eye flight
Cabin’s like a midnight church
Exit signs are candles perched
Over sleeping saints
Over the pole
Time zones fall like dominoes
My reflection in the porthole
Looks faint
Seat 12C
Stranger with a wrinkled suit
Says, “You look like you’re running from
Something absolute”
I just shrug
Stare down at the scattered towns
Tiny fires on the ground
I won’t touch down
[Bridge]
[beat drops to half-time, distant hum]
Mile high
But my heart hits low
Sky outside
But my chest feels closed
I’ve been
Living by departure screens
Every row another dream
That I postpone
Landing gear
Like a final word
Every city that I touch
Feels blurred
I ain’t scared
Of the fall or the flames
I’m scared
Of arriving the same
[Bridge – Humming]
(mmm, mmm-mm)
Mmm-mm-mm, mmm
(oh, oh-oh)
Mmm-mm-mm
[Chorus]
She hums to the engine climbing
Soft over metal and rain
Low like a prayer in my headphones
While we’re chasing the vein of the plane
Taxiway to heaven, we’re rising
Clouds drawing maps in the blue
I’m up where the world looks honest
But I’m still flying circles ‘round you
She hums like a home I remember
Warm over thunder and steel
Thirty thousand feet from the runway
Closer to learning to feel
(yeah, yeah)
Closer to learning to feel
[Outro]
[hummed hook, fading]
(mmm-mm)
Mmm, mm-mm-mm
You fade like the runway lights
As we climb into night
(mmm-mm)
Mmm, mm-mm-mm
Till the wheels kiss ground again
I’ll be flying toward you in my head