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.
