Welcome Home

That was my first interpretation of the line "Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again"

While at first I strongly related to the whole lost-love theory, and still do, now I definitely can see it differently.

I didn't think this song could possibly be more heartbreaking, but damn. I identify so much with your interpretation - I'm going to be making a trip back home to see some family in a few months, and I'm dreading the onslaught of bittersweet nostalgia, because it's almost always accompanied by plain old ugly bitterness.

On one hand it *does* make me feel safe, warm, welcome. I mean - these are the people who really know me, this is the place that made me who I've become for better or worse. On the other, just...no. So many regrets, so many painful memories. And at the same time I find myself struggling to hold onto them, because there's good there, too.

I have to fight the unwanted pangs of happiness even harder than the moments of sadness. Because those are the ones that hurt the most when they inevitably evaporate within the span of a second. That barely-there, nearly-worn-away person I used to be, dances around the spotlight and haunts the edges of the stage.

My family has changed so much yet they are exactly as I remember, or at least how I imagine they used to be, because now I'm not sure how skewed my perceptions are. How different they might actually be. If I even saw who they really were way back then. If they even saw who I was.

Home is such a weird place to be.

@HandForTender -
"Sleep don't visit, so I choke on sun
And the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done" - This is quite honestly the only verse in the song that I have a problem with making sense of...

I don't know what the writer was saying, but as a listener I was hearing a relatable description of using drugs. In recovery programs, newcomers to anonymous meetings are given a chip and a hug, and very often the meeting chair says "welcome home" as they literally embrace the newcomer. Many stimulant drugs (both legal and prescription, such as those intended to treat narcolepsy or ADD) can let you go a couple days on no sleep. From my personal perspective, I'd think I was "up late" studying, and when I'd see light coming through my windows my heart would sink as I realized it was already tomorrow and I was starting the day, ready or not. Most embarrassingly, I would catch myself talking about doing something "yesterday" and the other person would say "that was two days ago." Because I had not allowed each day to have a beginning and an end, they literally blurred into one day.

The backs of your eyes, where your stimulant-induced brilliance takes place, are often just ideas that you never follow through with (on many stimulants). Another thing taking place in that spazmatic brain is--in the case of many amphetamines--hallucination, delusion, and other shit that looks identical to Schizophrenia, which doctors have dubbed "Stimulant-induced psychosis."

During a recovery program, one of the twelve steps is the directive requiring the individual to unload all past wrongdoings (mostly secrets) to another human being. The feeling has been described to me in many ways by those in recovery, and while "ships launching from one's chest" was never one of those descriptions, I believe it very well could have been from the accounts I've heard.

The beauty of music of such genuine quality, is that this could have actually been about the writer planting his first backyard garden and his emotional reaction to that, where someone conquering an addiction hears--and relates entirely to--the exact same string of words. That's the divine in music.

"You were never supposed to leave"
Reading the earlier interpretations tells me that this is the key sentence. For me the meaning of the song is much more general, than leaving a house and going back, or thinking of it. Leaving means leaving everything, and it still not happened: before leaving everything, we look for our memories. People are really not thinking of being at the end of their way. They never suppose to leave. And I think this is good. You can not always be thinking of death, but it is neither bad to remind you to it sometimes. That makes this song so powerful.

Welcome home - means that you arrived, at the end of your way, you have no target to reach.

Sleep don’t visit, so I choke on sun
And the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I’ve never done
First part of the first sentence refers to the final sleep I think, second part tells that it is nothing but uncomfortable to BE. If you think it is bullshit what I am writing, go on reading. Second line tells that every day is the same, there is nothing that made them different, you have nothing to do. Like those minutes after arriving home at the end of a day: having nothing to do, you look back to the things you have done that day [instead of watching TV or surfing net until you fall asleep, looking back is more useful]. The time blurs, you are thinking of your day. At the end of your life you look back to your life, current days blur into one - not those days are the important ones. Back of your eyes: your head, your mind. It hums with things you never done: I am 30, but I am sure that the things, I have never done (but I ought to do) in my life would be those, that I would be thinking of the most, when I am going to be at the end of my life. Therefore it is the first kind of memory, that the song mentions. Then come the other things that you experienced in your life. Just go on reading.

Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline
Like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass
Was never much but we made the most
Clothesline is the time axis of your life. Sheets are your memories, "swaying" expresses very well how they appear in your mind. Calling the sheets ghosts only tells that they are really only memories in your head, nothing more. Old dead grass is the surrounding, those things that still physically exist and can be connected to your memories. These things exist, but they do not have the meaning, that they had in the past. Therefore they are dead from your point of view. This emphasizes that the only thing you have and you find important are your memories. In the last sentence I think there is nothing to explain - you do the most in your life. It is very nice that "most" is practically used as a noun

Welcome home
[my first time to cry when listening to the song]

Ships are launching from my chest
Some have names but most do not
If you find one, please let me know what piece I've lost
Ships represent your memories as well, they are leaving you. Nice to use chest, makes the picture powerful. Some memories can be connected to objects, places, persons, whatever. They have names. Others are general things, things that if you know, other people call you wise. They are all leaving you. Of course, you do not want to loose your memories, the only hope is that other people remind you.

Peel the scars from off my back
I don't need them anymore
You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars
You have wounds, you collect them in your life. Other people hurt you, or you just loose things and it hurts you. But when you are the end of your life, you have nothing in front of you, you feel peace. The scars are not important any more: you can peel them off: they cause no pain, peeling them off causes no pain. The last line makes this complete: what you throw out is what you are over. What you keep in a mason jar is also peeled off, you set these apart from you, they do not hurt you any more. But they are so deep, that you will never forget them until you actually die.

I've come home
Notice: not welcome home, I come home. You arrived at the end of the way - wow, it is tough. It is also important, that this was the last point where he mentioned "home". Until this point I feel accepting the situation. The last part of the song has different approach a bit! In the other hand, the reason for leaving out "home" is not that the song does not contain the refrain any more: the melody is repeated in the last part of the song, with different text!

All my nightmares escaped my head
things that you have been afraid of. You are not afraid of them any more.

Bar the door, please don't let them in
maybe there are some that you are still afraid, and they may come back... They are so strong, that it is not enough to just simply lock the door and they keep out, you have to bar the door. (indirect proof: lock would also work instead of bar) I think this fear is dying. The next sentence is in line with this idea.

You were never supposed to leave
Leaving means dying. Normally you never think of it, you only fear it, but you set it aside. When you feel that your life is close to it’s end, death is the only fear that you have. Notice, that until this point he was talking about himself (I, my), he was turning inside. This here is a general "you". When he is using "you" in the song, he tells something that he considers generally true, just look for the above you-s.

Now my head's splitting at the seams
again, he is talking about loosing what he has in his head. I find this very beautiful: seams on your head are not artificial! These are the natural seams / by God made seams (depending from what you think) that are now splitting by nature / God. Of course, still it is a metaphor of forgetting!

And I don't know if I can
this sentence is obviously not complete. Can do what? I think this verifies my understanding: he does not feel to be strong enough to what comes: death. Every normal person is afraid of one’s own death, and prefers not saying a word about it, not even thinking about it. Until first time he feels it so close.

Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again
To my understanding beneath the lungs you find the heart...
I think it is a masterpiece

Check the video on youtube. Look the many things around, in the garden, on the shelves, in the rooms of the house: how old and for several years untouched they are. They also represent the memories. The side, sometimes the center of the picture is blurred, representing the "launching ships".

I do not think that those who understand the songlike this should be sad. "Splitting at the seams" comes sooner or later. Therefore I think the best is to consider this song as a warning: collect as many memories, as possible, and shrink the number of "things you’ve never done" as much, as possible.