Stick Season

The speaker is struggling after a relationship ends. At first, the breakup feels sudden and unfair: the other person seemed to promise a future, then drove away. As the song continues, anger gives way to grief and self-awareness. The speaker admits that they sometimes blame themselves, yet also “like to play the victim,” showing how hard it is to face a breakup honestly.

Several images make the loss feel concrete. The “exit sign” suggests a moment when the relationship could have taken a different path, while “tire tracks and one pair of shoes” reduces the absent person to traces left behind. “The season of the sticks” refers to a bare, bleak time of year in Vermont, and the rainy weather becomes a reminder of the ex. The speaker’s “other half” expresses how closely their identity had become tied to the relationship.

The lyrics also resist a simple story of blame. The speaker recognizes their own part in the breakup but still feels abandoned, and dreams of a version of the ex that may never have existed exactly as remembered. “I hope this pain’s just passing through / But I doubt it” captures both a wish to recover and a fear that the grief will last. The ending does not offer resolution; “that’ll have to do” sounds like reluctant acceptance rather than genuine peace.