The Thing About Things

I've loaned a lot of things to a lot of friends
 Like dresses and records and books
 And some of the time I never see them again
 And in a weird way i think that it works
 'Cause the thing about things is they start to turn evil
 When you start to forget what they're for
 And so if you're not sure what you did with my sweater
 I'll just try to love you a little bit more
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 I had a ring it belonged to my grandfather
 He was a mason, and gay
 And he was distant and bitter for all of my childhood
 And we never had much to say
 He wasn't the type to give tokens of affection
 So I stole the ring when he died
 And twenty years on when I lost it at a bar
 I thought, that's fine, I don't want him in my life
 'Cause the thing about things is that
 They can start meaning things
 Nobody actually said
 And if he couldn't make
 Something mean something for me
 I had to make up what it meant
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 I can carry everything I need
 In one collapsing suitcase
 I can carry everyone I love
 In one phone application
 Built to maximize the Facetime of the friends
 I'm bent on making
 Actually I want to be alone
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 To mourn the loss of what it cost
 I think it's a poem and I think it keeps going
 I've borrowed and loaned lots of things
 Three nights ago in the bar where I lost it
 The bartender gave me the ring
 And I lie in bed
 With my phone in my hand
 Thinking
 What can I fix with which app?
 And I call my grandfather
 And he doesn't answer
 And I have to make peace with that fact
 Because the thing about things
 Is that they can start meaning things nobody actually said
 And if you're not allowed to love people alive
 Then you learn how to love people dead
 
 Because the thing about things
 Is that they can start meaning things nobody actually said
 And if you're not allowed to love people alive
 Then you learn how to love people dead