Remember coming home at four in the morning
Before the sun was up
Back when the east was a fire of gold
Just waiting for the rest of the sky to fall in love
Our hope is just a metaphor, of something better
For all of our dreams tonight
And fear is just a shadow of the things that matter the most
And I fear that I’m losing hope tonight
Oh, I feel like I’m dreaming
Staring up at the ceiling
It’s four in the morning
I can’t sleep and it feels like a warning
Oh, would you believe me
If I could say it just the way that I’m feeling
The words that I wanted to say
I feel them slipping away
Remember that kid with the quivering lip
Whose heart was on his sleeve like a first aid kit
Where are you now? Where are you now?
Remember that kid, didn’t know when to quit
I still lose my breath when I think about it
Oh, where’d you go?
Where’d you go?
I know this isn’t what you had wanted
Past words in the present are haunting us now
And on, and on, and on, and on
(I feel I’m slipping away)
My heartbeat can tell you it’s urgent
I try to shout but the words don’t come out
(away)
I feel it slipping away
Behind the Song:"Where you come from is gone."
-Flannery O'Connor
Of all the mysteries of life, perhaps death is the strangest reality of the human experience. The cessation of a human being on the planet is almost impossible to come to terms with. Eyes no longer filled with light. Heart no longer beating. Hands cold. Breath gone. But beneath all of this, the question remains: where did my friend go? The room is vacant, the body abandoned.
The memories are all that are left, the ghosts of a time passed. And in many ways, these memories represent the graveside tombstones of times that will never be ours again. We lay our flowers on the gravesides, we honor what has been with our present time. We can remember what has been, but we can never have these moments again.
Indeed, where you come from is gone. "Slipping Away" is a song about loss, and the memories that remain.
--
Jon Foreman