Natural Light

These are correct

I got some news on you from a friend you're in Charlotte again teaching Spanish at high school

he said you're going by Joy you cut your hair like a boy & you don't talk to your old friends

I found a picture from before the fight we're in natural light & you're sitting on my lap like everything's alright

I've walked around with you on my mind the names we used at the time you know I've changed myself since then

I've thought on things that we said what if we'd had the kid I guess he'd be 15

I found a picture from before the fight we're in natural light & you're sitting on my lap like everything's alright

For about the first twenty times I heard this song, I heard the line as "What if we'd had A kid?" It was just idle speculation - just a way of noting how long it had been since the two broke up, sigh, time passes, love fades, etc. - it fit what I thought was the mood of the song.

But the instant I heard it accurately, as "THE kid," that mood shifted completely. Suddenly the kid's not an abstract whim, he's the focal point of everything (in spite of not existing...) He's the reason for "the fight" - he's the life they didn't have together.

I can't shake the feeling that the singer and "Joy" are the couple from "Killers," even though I don't want them to be, because I want those guys to have made it through together. (Similarly, I don't want the dead bank robbers in "Northfield MN" to be the future selves of the "Optimist vs. Silent Alarm" couple, but they might be.)

Whose lyrics are these? I've been listening to the Sun Kil Moon version for years. Easily one of the most crushing songs I've ever heard.