Smoke
Ben Folds Five
Whatever and Ever Amen (1997)

Leaf by leaf, page by page
Throw this book away
All the sadness, all the rage
Throw this book away
Rip out the binding, tear the glue
All of the grief we never even knew
We had it all along
Now it's smoke

The things we've written in it
Never really happened
All the things we've written in it
Never really happened
All of the people come and gone
Never really lived
All the people come have gone
No one to forgive - smoke

We will never write a new one
There will not be a new one
Another one, another one

Here's an evening dark with shame
Throw it on the fire
Here's the time I took the blame
Throw it on the fire
Here's the view we didn't speak
It seemed for years and years
Here's a secret
No one will ever know the reasons for the tears
They are smoke

Where do all the secrets live
They travel in the air
You can smell them when they burn
They travel in the air
Those who say the past is not dead
Stop and smell the smoke
You keep on saying the past is not dead
Come and smell the smoke
You keep saying the past is not even past
You keep saying ...
We are smoke ... smoke ... smoke