The Noise Left Behind

THE NOISE LEFT BEHIND
© Jim Molinelli

[Verse 1]
The morning sun streams across the kitchen table.
We laugh at our photo, we were so young and able.
Two green kids on a campus, thirty summers back
Before the world grew heavy, and the calendar--packed.
Cheap apartments, first paychecks, our heads starting to spin
We got pregnant... we shrugged... then we let the noise in.

[Verse 2]
Countless diapers, two strollers, lots of midnight crying,
Play groups, homework, report cards quantifying
PTA, Scouts, sports… prom dresses with bling.
College plans, moving vans, and three diamond rings
Then belongings were packed and the driveway was clear
Three decades of noise gone in the turn of a year.

[Chorus]
Through the decades of static, we held the line
Our two hearts still beat, and in perfect time
We enjoyed the racket, and embraced the grind
We now love the quiet... and the noise left behind!

[Bridge]
We spent thirty years trying to hear ourselves think
Now the kids’ve grown up and married quick as a blink
As this new chapter opens and the dust starts to clear
The quiet echoes of laughter is all that I hear
As I wonder how lonely this new phase might be
There stands my husband grinning right back at me...

[Verse 3]
She placed the frame down. As I watch her I say
“Gotta tell you I hear something different today…
All the noise we endured through the last 30 years,
Obscured the two heartbeats I suddenly hear,
They still beat as one, as they did long ago.
We've done a fine job.” Her face bright... her smile glows...

[Chorus]
Through the decades of static, we held the line
Our two hearts still beat, and in perfect time
We enjoyed the racket, and embraced the grind
We now love the quiet... and the noise left behind!

We love the quiet... and the noise left behind!