White Lights

The Handsome Family

When you walked with me away from the strip mall bar
Across the highway to that little graveyard
Where plastic flowers bloomed in yellow grass
We sat on a broken bench, listening to the cars pass

And right above your head
In the branches of a tree
There were white lights
Swaying slowly in the breeze

There were white lights, white lights
White lights swaying in a tree

I know they were there to stop kids kicking over graves
Or spray-painting tree trunks with their favorite rock band's name
But sitting here with you, almost touching your white hand
Among the broken bottles, crushed and faded cans

And those white lights, white lights
White lights swaying in the breeze

There was mystery singing from everything
The strip mall, the highway, the boarded-up skating rink
They were calling our names in the strip mall parking lot
Our sweet drunken friends finally noticing we'd gone

But we just sat there
Not saying anything
Almost touching hands
Your hair flying in the highway breeze

Like those white lights, white lights
White lights swaying in a tree