From the album MJ Lenderman
This is a song about someone repackaging rejection as patience. The baby keeps saying there will be a time for the narrator, just not now, and instead of hearing the obvious stalling tactic, the narrator builds an entire future around waiting for love to release them while staying in a relationship that has already ended in every way but name.
My baby says that there will be a time for me / Now it's not the time for me
The baby never says when or why, just keeps kicking the timeline down the road. That vagueness is the whole point. It is a soft no dressed up as maybe later, and the narrator hears hope instead of exit strategy.
I will wait until this passes over me / Until my love lets go of me
The narrator frames love as something external that needs to release them, like they are waiting for a fever to break. They do not realize they are describing their own feelings as the obstacle while their baby has already moved on.
There we'll stay where we sleep in separate beds / Keep our clothes on keep our heads
This is the future the narrator is holding out for. Not reconciliation or intimacy, but a permanent holding pattern where they stay together without touching. The narrator thinks this sounds like devotion. It sounds like roommates.
Keep our smiles close behind / All we need is our own life
The smiles are kept close behind, meaning they are hidden or saved for later, never actually worn. The claim that all we need is our own life tries to sound self-sufficient, but the whole song has been about needing permission from someone who will not give it.
The narrator does not realize that planning a future of separate beds and kept-on clothes is accepting a relationship that ended before the song started. The baby says there will be a time, and the narrator builds a life around waiting for something the baby has already refused to give.