Marble Ivory

Intro

Radiator hissing in the corner

(corner)

Cast-iron waking up the cold

(cold)

Breathe it out.

Verse 1

Cast-iron skillet, pilot light flickers blue

Six in the morning, dust motes cutting through

Stiff in the tendons, coffee in a dented cup

Salt on the window, waiting for the blood to jump

Winter kept the armor locked tight around the ribs

Counting every dollar just to tally how we lived

Now the frost is leaking off the fire escape stairs

Unclench the jawbone, breathing in the sudden air

Piano in the hallway, upright, eighty-eight teeth

Yellowed like a secret that was buried underneath

Tap on middle C, hear the hammer hit the felt

Shock in the knuckle when the frozen edges melt

Had to be a statue just to make it through the street

Granite on the collarbone, cement around the feet

Now the copper kettle starts to whistle through the grey

Feeling every blister that I carried on the way

Chorus

Cold on the marble, teeth on the ivory

Ten years of stone just trying to survive me

Now the pulse runs quick through the marrow and the wire

Fingertips burning in the middle of the fire

Cold on the marble, teeth on the ivory

(ivory)

Nothing stays frozen when the morning comes to find me

(find me)

Verse 2

Pavement is sweating where the diesel engines park

Wool coat heavy, swinging through the early dark

Half-step, pivot, rubber soles against the slush

Used to move in phantom mode, numb against the rush

Block after block, had my vision in a sling

Didn't let the weather or the metal hurt a thing

That was just surviving, holding breath beneath the floor

Now the chest expands till it's knocking down the door

Hear the city humming like an organ in the nave

Every pothole singing what the daylight couldn't save

Blood hit the capillaries, pins in every seam

Aches like an ember waking up inside a dream

Dropped down the nickel on the counter at the store

Grease on the brown paper, boots against the floor

Not a clean recovery, the sting is how I know

Nothing grows in marble, gotta let the water flow

Chorus

Cold on the marble, teeth on the ivory

Ten years of stone just trying to survive me

Now the pulse runs quick through the marrow and the wire

Fingertips burning in the middle of the fire

Cold on the marble, teeth on the ivory

(ivory)

Nothing stays frozen when the morning comes to find me

(find me)

Bridge

Stood like a pillar so the ceiling wouldn't drop

Never let the tempo or the breathing cycle stop

Statues don't listen and statues don't bleed

They only hold the weight of an empty kind of need

Peel off the plaster, let the wind hit the raw

Pain is just the proof of the season in the thaw

Nerve ends shaking like a struck bass string

I don't want the silence if it costs me everything

Outro

Keys on the upright, yellow and bare

(bare)

Heat in the palms, color in the air

(air)

Cold on the marble, teeth on the ivory

Hammer hits the felt.

Let it ring.