Rust eats the hinge, the lock, the saint in the frame Basement air, old pennies, damp wood going soft I found my name in the mold behind the furnace A small black script, still trying to stay legible What rots doesn’t vanish It changes hands I carried my worst years like tools in a pocket A nail, a key, a mouth full of rust Each thing I broke kept a clean outline of me Each thing I buried learned how to breathe Under the crawling stain, under the salt on the brick There’s a seam in the ruin that won’t give up Not mercy exactly More like a thread in the dark saying, pull So let the beams split Let the paint blister and peel Let the old bones cough up their dust I’ve seen how the grave can turn practical How even slag remembers the forge If I am to be remade Do it without polish Do it with soot in the veins and rainwater in the skull Do it so the dead can look at me and know I was not saved by staying clean I was saved by staying here [Instrumental]
