The lyric is a leaving song told from inside the last days of a relationship. The couple were lovers all along with a good thing going, but the narrator feels changes coming on, knows he will soon be gone, and cannot get the other person to talk about it. The late nights in the kitchen are spent pretending to still care while both of them stare at the door. The refrain wonders aloud why people give their hearts and then turn around and say goodbye, and ends on the vow that he is leaving when he sees that morning sky.

The song has had a steady second life among bluegrass bands, which is unusual for a Fogelberg album cut. The Seldom Scene recorded it on Changes (Rounder, 2019), an album built from 1960s and early-1970s singer-songwriter material, and Sister Sadie cut it on Sister Sadie II (Pinecastle, 2018). SecondHandSongs also lists versions by Knoxville Grass, the DejaBlue Grass Band and Virginia Rail. Fogelberg had made the acoustic connection explicit himself with High Country Snows (1985), a bluegrass album recorded with Ricky Skaggs, Doc Watson, Jerry Douglas and Chris Hillman.