You’re late, for what I do not know, but I stayed up in the kitchen waiting for you to come home. On the garage and on the porch, the lights aglow, and the clock has rested its case upon the stove. Tonight in my robe I officially became old. There’s one dance a lot of kids do, with simple steps that lead right back to their rooms. No one can hurt you if you do the curfew.

Guess certain steps aren’t so easy to learn, guess certain bridges aren’t so easy to burn. A lot later pulls up a car I’d never seen before. Lingers in the driveway a while before you open the passenger door. When he drives away, there bursts the first light of the day. There’s one dance a lot of kids do, with simple steps that lead right back to their rooms. No one can hurt you if you do the curfew.

Spin your partners like they’ve never been. Then let them go and see whose arms they end up in.

You’re late, but you didn’t miss a lot. Or maybe I was early, and this is where we start. The sun’s bursting in through the windows of the kitchen. If you’ll look me in the eye, I promise I’ll listen. I made plenty of coffee. You still haven’t lost me. There’s one dance a lot of kids do, with simple steps that lead right back to their rooms. No one can hurt you if you do the curfew.