Syracuse Lyrics

You were the gentlest of giants

You were the stories that you told

Even when you were lying

We knew the truth

How you joined the Navy

And fought that war

And you married her

Like you said before you left you would

It was 1945

On a fireman's pay

Bought a red brick house

And some pale pink paint

And you rolled it out there on the walls

That would witness all our lives

On Syracuse

You were the gentlest of giants

When you held your newborn child

Every day you would try and try and try

And the years flew by

And your daughter grew

And she married him

Like you always knew someday she would

And the granddaughters came soon

We'd blink our lights as we drove away

And you'd stand outside the garage and wave

Then turn inside

When you couldn't see us anymore

You couldn't fight the fire

Of the certainty of time

And Gram had left us

Years before we knew

That you were dying

And you didn't know who I was some days

But you held my hand

And you asked my name

A thousand times

And I told you all I knew

A tire swing on a willow tree

And the stilts you built

And the peonies your sweetie loved

All the time that slipped away

On Syracuse

So the gentlest of giants

Every story that he told

Faded into the silence

So I drove

I watched the sun go down

On that red brick house

With the pale pink paint

You and Gram picked out

Still on the walls

But everything had changed

And I blinked my lights

As I drove away

And I wished like hell

You were there to wave

Just one last time, one last time, one last time

On Syracuse

Syracuse

Syracuse

Syracuse