Copper Wire Testimony (Version 2)

Verse 1

Fourth floor of the mill where the windows stayed broke

Dess and me climbed in through the vents like a joke

Wire cutters in a duffel, flashlight in my teeth

Copper coiled like intestines underneath the concrete

Scrapyard paid nine-fifty a pound back then

Enough for rent, enough to eat, enough to breathe again

Burned my palm on live current, didn't say a word

Kept peeling wire steady like the pain never occurred

Dess said copper don't care whose hand is doing the work

Long as the strip is clean, long as nobody shirks

We split it fifty-fifty on the curb by the light

Counted twice, shook once, called it an honest night

Pre-Chorus

What's a man worth when the lights go out

When it's just two hands and a metal route

Do you strip it clean or do you cut and run

When the truth's the only weight that weighs a ton

Chorus

Copper wire testimony

Every burn scar tells the truth

Strip it down, it don't lie to me

That's the only currency I trust

Verse 2

Two years later Dess got caught on the third floor alone

Cops found the cutters, found the duffel, found his own

Name in the file but never mentioned mine

I sat in my room counting scars like a spine

Could've run my mouth, made bail money appear

Instead I kept the silence like the wire kept us clear

Visited him Sundays, brought him canteen and cash

Never talked about the job, just talked about the past

He said you still stripping? I said nah, went legit

Got a job installing wire, funny how that fits

Same hands, same burns, different kind of light

Still following that copper like it's showing me what's right

Pre-Chorus

What's a man worth when the lights go out

When it's just two hands and a metal route

Do you strip it clean or do you cut and run

When the truth's the only weight that weighs a ton

Chorus

Copper wire testimony

Every burn scar tells the truth

Strip it down, it don't lie to me

That's the only currency I trust

Bridge

Taught my nephew how to run conduit last spring

Told him copper only tells you one true thing

It don't care your color, don't care what you're worth

Only cares you strip it honest, first cut to the earth

He asked me why my palms look torn like a map

I said that's the receipt, boy, for a debt I never wrapped

Some scars pay forward, some just pay you back

Mine bought me a partner's silence on the tracks

Chorus

Copper wire testimony

Every burn scar tells the truth

Strip it down, it don't lie to me

That's the only currency I trust