Every Departure Board Is a Love Letter (Wanderlust)

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I packed in eleven minutes
which is my personal record
for leaving a city
that was still being good to me

The toothbrush went in first
because the toothbrush
is the only honest object —
it goes where you go
it doesn't pretend
it was planning to stay

Gare de Lyon at 6:40
and the departure board
is flipping its letters
like a deck of cards
being shuffled
by someone
who wants me to pick one

[Verse 2]
Bà ngoại used to say
chân đi không mỏi thì lòng phải mỏi
— if the feet don't tire
the heart will

She meant it as a warning
I heard it as a promise
My feet have been making promises
to platforms in nine countries
and the platforms
have all kept theirs:
they held me
exactly long enough
to leave

[Pre-Chorus]
I am not running from the apartment
The apartment is perfect
The staircase knows my step
The faucet knows my hands
I am running toward the next staircase
that doesn't know me yet
because the not-knowing
is where I feel my edges

[Chorus]
Every departure board is a love letter
Every platform is a fleeting promise
I fall in love with cities
the way some women fall for novels —
fast, with my whole suitcase,
knowing I'll leave
and calling the leaving
part of the love

I don't want to live in Marseille
I want to arrive in Marseille
I want the first morning
when the coffee tastes like someone else's kitchen
and the window shows a skyline
I haven't memorized
and my legs walk differently
because the streets
haven't taught them yet

[Verse 3]
My substantia nigra
is a departure lounge
with no final destination posted
It lights up
every time I stand
on unfamiliar pavement
and have to decide
which way is the river

Novelty is my frequency
The first coffee in a strange café
where I point at the menu
because my French is useless
and my Vietnamese is decorative
and my body has to do
what language can't:
just — show up
and be confused
and feel the aliveness
of not knowing
where the bathroom is

[Bridge]
Đi rồi sẽ về — go and you'll return
That's what I told the apartment
when I shut the door this morning
I told it in Vietnamese
because Vietnamese
is the language I make promises in
and French
is the language I break them in

But I always come back
I came back from Thessaloniki
I came back from Bruges
I came back from that village
outside Porto
where the woman at the market
gave me figs
and said something
I still don't understand
and I've been carrying
the not-understanding
like a souvenir
that never loses its weight

[Final Chorus]
Every departure board is a love letter
and every return
is the letter back
I fall in love with cities
and I come home
to the one that learned my step
The leaving is the love
The returning is the proof
The carry-on
is always packed
and the staircase
always creaks
on the third step
on the left
and I am never more home
than the moment
I drop my bag
on the floor
I just swept
before I left