all that blood was never once beautiful

She    stared    into    her    coffee,    sitting    in    a   thin    blue    dress    that    tangled    in    her    calves.    She    often    felt    that    she    chased    the    ideal    cup    of    coffee    in    her    mind    from    table    to    table,     the    rich,    thick,    creamy    coffee,    spicy,    bittersweet,    that    betrayed    no    hint    of    thinness    or    chemical    flavoring,    nothing    less    than    total,    fathomless    devotion    to    the    state    of    being    itself.    Every    morning    she    pulled    a    delicate    cup    from    its    brass    hook    and    filled    it,    hoping    that    it    would    be    dark    and    deep    and    secret    as    a    forest,    and    each    morning    it    cooled    too    fast,    had    too    much    milk,    stained    the    cup,    made    her    nervous. (x)

The following is a collection of lyric sentence starters from Taylor Swift’s ninth studio album evermore. May contain mature subject matter. January 17th Note: Now updated to include bonus tracks!

WILLOW

I’m rough on the surface, but you cut through like a knife

If it was an open-shut case I never would have known from the look on your face 

Lost in your current like a priceless wine 

The more that you say, the less I know 

Wherever you stray, I follow 

I’m begging for you to take my hand 

I’m begging for you

I can feel you sneakin’ in 

There was one prize I’d cheat to win 

They count me out time and time again 

Anywhere else is hollow

That’s my man 

I come back stronger than a ‘90s trend 

Wait for the signal, and I’ll meet you after dark 

I’ll meet you after dark 

Show me the places where the others gave you scars 

This is an open-shut case 

I should'a known from the look on your face 

Hey, that’s my man 

Yeah, that’s my man

CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS

You booked the night train for a reason

Your heart was glass, I dropped it 

You told your family for a reason 

You dropped my hand while dancing, left me out there standing 

Love slipped beyond your reaches and I couldn’t give a reason 

This dorm was once a madhouse

Well, it’s made for me 

Soon they’ll have the nerve to deck the halls that we once walked through 

I never was ready so I watch you go 

She would’ve made such a lovely bride, what a shame she’s fucked in the head

Sometimes you just don’t know the answer til someone’s on their knees and asks you 

You won’t remember all my champagne problems

GOLD RUSH

I don’t like a gold rush

I don’t like that anyone would die to feel your touch 

Everybody wants you 

Everybody wonders what it would be like to love you 

What must it be like to grow up that beautiful? 

I can’t dare to dream about you anymore 

My mind turns your life into folklore

I won’t call you out on your contrarian shit 

‘TIS THE DAMN SEASON

If I wanted to know who you were hanging with while I was gone, I would have asked you

There’s an ache in you, put there by the ache in me 

But if it’s all the same to you it’s the same to me 

You could call me “babe” for the weekend 

We could call it even 

Remember how you watched me leave

You can run, but only so far 

And the road not taken looks real good now 

Hear me out, we could just ride around 

The road not taken looks real good now and it always leads to you in my hometown 

I won’t ask you to wait if you don’t ask me to stay 

I wonder about the only soul who can tell which smiles I’m fakin' 

The heart I know I’m breakin’ is my own

Even though I’m leavin’ and I’ll be yours for the weekend 

​'Tis the damn season

TOLERATE IT

I notice everything you do or don’t do

You’re so much older and wiser 

If it’s all in my head tell me now 

Tell me I’ve got it wrong somehow 

I know my love should be celebrated but you tolerate it 

I take your indiscretions all in good fun 

I made you my temple, my mural, my sky - now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life 

I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life 

You assume I’m fine, but what would you do if I break free and leave us in ruins?

Believe me, I could do it 

NO BODY, NO CRIME

He did it

Her husband’s actin’ different, and it smells like infidelity 

That ain’t my merlot on his mouth. That ain’t my jewelry on our joint account 

I think I’m gonna call him out 

No, there ain’t no doubt 

I think he did it, but I just can’t prove it 

No body, no crime

I ain’t lettin’ up until the day I die 

Good thing my daddy made me get a boating license when I was fifteen 

I’ve cleaned enough houses to know how to cover up a scene 

She was with me, dude 

They think she did it, but they just can’t prove it 

Good thing his mistress took out a big life insurance policy 

I wasn’t lettin’ up until the day he died 

HAPPINESS

I see this for what it is

All the years I’ve given is just shit we’re dividin’ up 

I can’t face reinvention 

There’ll be happiness after you 

There was happiness because of you 

Haunted by the look in my eyes that would’ve loved you for a lifetime 

Tell me, when did your winning smile begin to look like a smirk? 

I hope she’ll be your beautiful fool, who takes my spot next to you

No, I didn’t mean that 

Sorry, I can’t see facts through all of my fury

You haven’t met the new me yet 

There’ll be happiness after me

There was happiness because of me 

I can’t make it go away by making you a villain 

I pulled your body into mine every goddamn night, now I get fake niceties 

No one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you and you know you hurt him, too

All you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness 

After giving you the best I had, tell me what to give after that?

All you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness. You haven’t met the new me yet and I think she’ll give you that

DOROTHEA

Do you ever stop and think about me?

A tiny screen’s the only place I see you now

I got nothing but well-wishes for ya

This place is the same as it ever was but you don’t like it that way 

It’s never too late to come back to my side 

You'rе a queen sellin’ dreams, sellin’ makeup and magazines 

From you I’d buy anything 

But are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers? 

I guess I’ll never know 

If you’re ever tired of being known for who you know, you’ll always know me.

CONEY ISLAND

If I can’t relate to you anymore then who am I related to?

And if this is the long haul how’d we get here so soon? 

Did I close my fist around something delicate?

Did I shatter you? 

Sorry for not making you my centerfold 

What’s a lifetime of achievement if I pushed you to the edge but you were too polite to leave me?

Do you miss the rogue who coaxed you into paradise and left you there?

Will you forgive my soul when you’re too wise to trust me and too old to care? 

We were like the mall before the internet 

Were you waiting at our old spot: in the tree line by the gold clock?

Did I leave you hanging every single day? 

When I got into the accident the sight that flashed before me was your face 

IVY

Your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

I just sit here and wait, grieving for the living 

My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand 

My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand taking mine, but it’s been promised to another 

Stop you putting roots in my dreamland 

I wish to know the fatal flaw that makes you long to be magnificently cursed 

Your opal eyes are all I wish to see 

I’d live and die for moments that we stole 

What would he do if he found us out? 

Dare to sit and watch what we’ll become 

It’s a goddamn blaze in the dark and you started it 

It’s the goddamn fight of my life and you started it

COWBOY LIKE ME

Dancin’ is a dangerous game

I’m never gonna love again 

I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve 

Takes one to know one 

Never wanted love, just a fancy car 

You’re a cowboy like me 

I’m telling all the rich folks anything they wanna hear 

You’re a bandit like me 

Never thought I’d meet you here 

We could be the way forward and I know I’ll pay for it 

The skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up

The old men that I’ve swindled really did believe I was the one 

Now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon 

Forever is the sweetest con

LONG STORY SHORT

I tried to pick my battles ‘til the battle picked me

I was in the alley, surrounded on all sides 

Long story short, it was a bad time 

If the shoe fits, walk in it 'til your high heels break

I clung to the nearest lips and long story short, it was the wrong guy 

Now I’m all about you 

Actually, I always felt I must look better in the rear view - missing me.

If someone comes at us, this time, I’m ready 

No more keepin’ score, now I just keep you warm 

Past me, I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things 

Your nemeses will defeat themselves before you get the chance to swing 

He feels like home 

Long story short, I survived

MARJORIE

Never be so kind you forget to be clever

Never be so clever you forget to be kind

If I didn’t know better I’d think you were talking to me now

If I didn’t know better I’d think you were still around 

You’re alive in my head 

What died didn’t stay dead 

You’re alive, so alive 

Never be so polite you forget your power

Nevеr wield such power you forget to be polite 

I should’ve asked you questions 

Should’ve kept every grocery store receipt cause every scrap of you would be taken from me 

I know better but you’re still around 

I still feel you all around

CLOSURE

It’s been a long time and seeing the shape of your name still spells out pain

Yes, I’m doing better

I don’t need your closure 

Yes, I got your letter 

Don’t treat me like some situation that needs to be handled 

I’m fine with my spite and my tears, and my beers and my candles 

I know I’m just a wrinkle in your new life 

Staying friends would iron it out so nice 

EVERMORE

Gray November, I’ve been down since July

I replay my footsteps on each stepping stone trying to find the one where I went wrong 

I couldn’t be sure

I had a feeling so peculiar that this pain would be for evermore 

Guess I’m feeling unmoored 

Can’t remember what I used to fight for 

Can’t not think of all the cost and the things that will be lost 

To be certain, we’ll be tall again 

Is there a line that I could just go cross? 

And when I was shipwrecked I thought of you 

It was real enough to get me through 

I dreamed of you 

I swear you were there 

I had a feeling so peculiar, this pain wouldn’t be for evermore

RIGHT WHERE YOU LEFT ME

Friends break up

I’m right where you left me

Help

I’m still at the restaurant

I swear you could hear a hair pin drop

What a sad sight…

I felt the moment stop

They expected me to find perspective

Everybody moved on, but I stayed there

You left me no choice

You left me no choice but to stay here forever

Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen?

Time went on for everyone else

Did you hear about the girl who lives in delusion?

Breakups happen every day

I was still the one you wanted

If our love died young, I can’t bare witness

If you ever think you got it wrong, I’m right where you left me

IT’S TIME TO GO

He’s insisting that friends look at each other like that

The words of a sister come back in whispers

She’s a crook that was caught

She was not in fact what she seemed

You know when it’s time to go

Twenty years at that job, then the boss of the son gets the spot….

Keeping it how it was will only break hearts worse

Sometimes giving up is the strong thing

Sometimes walking out is the one thing that will find you the right thing

Sometimes to run is the brave thing

I gave my all

He gave me nothing at all

He’s got my past frozen behind glass but I’ve got me

I’LL REPLY WITH 

WOULD I: YES / MAYBE / NO

HAVE I EVER BEFORE: YES / NO