Long Way Round

If you gave me the machine and said "go back, pick again,"

I'd stand there a long time with my hand above the dial,

'cause there's things I'd lift out easy, things nobody should carry,

things I'd take from a child in a heartbeat, no debate, don't ask me twice.

But the road that got me here went through every bit of it,

and the man that I like being was assembled in the mess,

and I don't know how to keep him and delete the way he's made —

that's the trap in the question. That's why I don't answer it.

Long way round. (long way round)

Nobody would pick it.

Long way round. (long way round)

But I'm not standing at the start now,

I'm standing at the far end of it,

looking at the whole shape.

Long way round. (long way round)

So I'm not going to tell you that it happened for a reason.

It didn't. Things just happen, and then people do the meaning.

The meaning's the manufacture — that's the work, that's the labour,

you build it out of nothing in the years that come after.

And I built mine out of small stuff: mornings, mates, a job,

a dog that needs the same walk at the same hour, rain or not,

a door I get to lock, a voice I get to raise,

and every single one of those is a thing I made from wreckage.

Long way round. (long way round)

Not a blessing, not a gift.

Long way round. (long way round)

Just the road that actually happened,

and a man who learned to walk it

and can walk it now with company.

Long way round. (long way round)

And the kid gets to hear this.

The kid in the corner of the year I don't discuss —

he gets to hear the end of it:

we got out. We got a life. It's a good one. It's a quiet one.

We got out.

Long way round. (long way round)

Nobody would pick it —

and I'm not asking for it back,

and I'm not handing it away.

I'm just going to keep going,

in the sunshine, with the whole thing,

and the whole thing weighs less every year.

Long way round. (long way round)