Bite Down Hard - Electric Bard

Pencil behind the ear, shovel inside the trench Sweating through shirts upon the splintered bench We test the chalk with a thumbnail scrape Wiping off dust on an apron drape Barley sandwich in a greasy sack Thirty-two vertebrae along the back One stray pebble in the leather shoe Ruins every single thing we came to do We shovel up the white to pack the garden gate Before the soggy clouds decide our fate Bite Down Hard On The Chalky Crumb Better Keep Moving Till The Fingers Numb Scrape The Silt From The Iron Blade Counting Up The Pennies That We Never Made Spit on the scraper, strike up a spark Nobody wants to be digging in the dark Old man Cooper says his knee can feel a flood Swears there is water creeping through the blood He sits upon the wheelbarrow, drinking down tea Giving free advice to the parish and to me Drop the mallet, pick up the pick Lime in the eye makes a fellow rather sick We pile up the stones in a crooked row Wondering how deep the ditch will go Nothing like a blister on a Tuesday noon To make a quarry worker whistle out of tune Chalk for the wall. Flint for the spark. Mud on the trousers. Dog with a bark. We mend the fence, the sheep push through. We start again like we always do. Bite Down Hard On The Chalky Crumb Better Keep Moving Till The Fingers Numb Scrape The Silt From The Iron Blade Counting Up The Pennies That We Never Made Spit on the scraper, strike up a spark Nobody wants to be digging in the dark Pack the ditch. Mind the spine. Chalk on the tongue. Tastes just fine.