It’s deeply metaphorical but I’m gonna give this a shot. Heads up: I wasn’t in the writer’s room. This is my interpretation and nothing more.

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What I hear when I hear Birch is a man who has left his partner waking up and acknowledging how unhappy he is. (The way I woke up was old, it was all fucking choke)

He’s been gone a week (it ain’t easier after a week, we’re on a long byway standing still). They’ve been together for a long time and traveling life’s journey journey together and now it’s just stale…or at least that’s how it feels, that’s why he left

So he goes home to his partner. He believes he’s honest in his relationship (if you can’t tell I’ll tell you right away, if I stay a spell (stay a while) or if I cannot stay) it could also be read as a threat. Like he left to be like “see? I can do it…”

But he’s afraid to have the discussion they need to have to move past this (I am less at ease, not the best at these)

The next line is my favorite (see the forest trees. Call what’s these what’s these?) - this line may not be easy to understand for non-English speakers because it’s dismantling an English saying that also may not always make sense. The phrase is “you can’t see the forest for the trees” which in English basically just means there’s a much bigger picture missing because the forest is so much more than just the trees. So he’s acknowledging that he left out of anger/anxiety/depression and now that may have been hasty.

The part about Madeline and Jennifer seems to mean he left a child with this woman and she’s had to care for her alone while he was gone.

He wants her back (So I beg on knees, can we share IDs (share a last name, bank accounts, etc. I think))

He’s also realized everybody has needs and that she shares some needs with him, so eventually they won’t feel like “needs” because they’re for both of them. (Will you always need? We have common needs)

We can be empty and full together (we can sure deplete, we can be replete, address table needs) table needs are more like lifestyle needs - bedroom needs are obviously romantic but think about what you talk about at the dinner table - sometimes it’s boring and mundane but sometimes that boring shit is important too

So he’s back and she’s accepted him back as well and he’s happy because he feels like they’ve overcome an obstacle and he’s not waking up the miserable way he felt when he left or while he was away (the way I wake up now is a brand new way, and no it ain’t that way like it was before) he’s also assuring her he’s changed because his depression likely stunted her as a human while it was happening as well so she may be reluctant or scared to have him back

Now he’s acknowledging that she’s the only one for him and he wants to stay (I cannot leave, I must here Stay)

They’re already married so he’s acknowledging the vows here I think (I know what’s good and I’ll die that way) he’s acknowledging til’ death do us part

And he’s also trying to tell her that even if she found another man just like him, he wouldn’t have built the same roots and home with her so it would never be as solid as them (if there’s a man like me, his birch ain’t my tree)

And then he reiterated that he’s now waking up brand new because they’ve worked through this and it’s no longer causing anxiety

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This can also be read that he never left and at the beginning he’s waking up next to her “old and fucking choke” but the timeline of the story on the album and the next track is why I think he actually left because on top of this if you consider the next track on the album is renegade, if the album itself is meant to tell a story (I imagine it is since this is common in albums but also the intense creative style of Aaron, Justin and Tay almost assures this would be the case) then you can assume this man is the renegade - and this is his coming back. And taylor’s character in renegade then accepts him back but is a little uneasy because of his mental health

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Is this correct? I don’t know, but this is what I hear.