This is our Emo Album

Ashtray halo on your dashboard
December fog on every word
We talk in circles
Chew old war stories
Till they taste like someone else’s hurt
You tap the steering wheel in patterns
I used to know what that meant
Now it’s just Morse code in the silence
Spelling out everything we never said

Parking lot epiphanies
Headlights shining on our history
We used to bleed the same small-town dream
(now we’re fading, fading)
You’re right there
But you’re far from me
Two ghosts in a cracked-up SUV
Guess forever had an expiry
(in this empty, empty)
Parking lot epiphanies

Your hoodie still hangs on my shoulders
But it fits you less every year
You’re talking plans three cities over
I’m tracing raindrops
Trying not to hear
We laugh at pictures on your cracked phone
Those kids don’t look like us at all
We swore we’d leave here as a fistfight
Now we’re just fingers learning how to fall

Parking lot epiphanies
Headlights shining on our history
We used to bleed the same small-town dream
(now we’re fading, fading)
You’re right there
But you’re far from me
Two ghosts in a cracked up SUV
Guess forever had an expiry
(in this empty, empty)
Parking lot epiphanies

Shouting names we don’t go by
(you were “saint,” I was “lost cause”)
Spray paint vows on brick walls
Now the paint’s peeled off
But the cracks stay on
Are we growing up or just growing out
Of every version that we loved loud?
Say you’ll call
I nod like I believe it
But the truth hits hard in the dome light now

Parking lot epiphanies
Headlights shining on our history
We used to bleed the same small-town dream
(now we’re fading, fading)
You’re right there
But you’re far from me
Two ghosts in a cracked up SUV
Guess forever had an expiry
(in this empty, empty)
Parking lot epiphanies

One last hug in the cold night air
(so long, so long)
Tail lights smear like we were never there
(gone, gone, gone)
I sit alone in the driver’s seat
With every version of who we’d be
Parking lot epiphanies
Just me and the echo of your key




















Parking Lot Epiphanies

Sometimes your
Biggest trial
Begins
Yeah 
It begins with a smile
What could go wrong
But it all depends
On how long
You had your last test
You know
The one where you 
Ended up feeling like a mess
You know how they
Suggest
They have something
For you
But that’s only 
If you’ll do
What they want you
To do
And in the end
Benefits them
And not you
You know what I mean
Here all along
You think
You understand
But they’re sneaky
With their hidden plan
That you don’t see
Until it’s too late
Oh and did I tell you
It might begin with a date
You know
After that smile
So let that sink in
And consider it
For awhile
©2026 wr heustis

Tie Up the Tides

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