Runes in the Rubble

Intro

Foundry gates rusted shut since the mill went dark

Chalk marks on the concrete, old scrapper's arc

Every symbol scratched by a hand that starved and stayed

Reading rubble like scripture, that's the language that we made

Verse

Grew up three blocks from the smokestack, hollow and cold

Daddy cut rebar for pennies, sold copper for gold

Torch scars up his forearm, map of every job he did

Said the fire don't forgive you, but it teaches every kid

I learned the marks by twelve, chalk X means the floor's thin

Circle with a slash through, means the roof's caving in

Old man Rasko taught me first, before his lungs gave out

Coughing ash in a coffee tin, still he never had a doubt

Said the rubble holds a language older than the deed

Every plate we strip for scrap is a sentence that we read

Sunday church was the gate yard, sermon was the rust

Faith ain't in the steeple, faith is in what you trust

Trusted my own hands before I trusted any man

Filled a bucket full of copper, called it my first plan

Now the young ones read my marks the way I read the dead

Rubble's just a Bible if you know the words that's said

Chorus

Runes in the rubble, that's the only book I read

Every scar's a sentence, every plate's a creed

Ash don't lie to no one, tells you who survived

Read the ruins right, and the ruins keep you alive

Verse

Sold my first ton of copper for four hundred flat

Bought my mama groceries, kept the rest for the mat

Where I slept behind the boiler when the shelter closed its door

Learned to sleep sitting up, learned to want a little more

By nineteen I ran three crews stripping half the east side

Taught them the marks I inherited, taught them where the roof would slide

Lost a boy named Denny to a beam he misread

Chalk washed off in the rain, so we carved it in the lead

Now every plate we strip got his initials on the flip

A rune for the ones that stayed steady when the whole thing dipped

I don't flex chains, I flex the calluses I earned

Every burn's a receipt for a lesson that I learned

Foundry closed but the language never did retire

Passed it down like embers, kept the whole thing lit like fire—

No, kept it lit like memory, no flame required

Just the marks, just the metal, just the ones who never tired

Chorus

Runes in the rubble, that's the only book I read

Every scar's a sentence, every plate's a creed

Ash don't lie to no one, tells you who survived

Read the ruins right, and the ruins keep you alive

Bridge

They tore the whole mill down last spring, sold the land for cheap

Poured a parking lot right over where the old gates used to keep

But I kept a piece of rebar, kept it by my door

Told my son the marks still matter even if there's no floor

Said the world will always try to pave you out the story

But the ones who read the rubble get to keep the glory

Outro

Chalk fades, concrete cracks, but the reading never dies

Every rune we left behind still tells you where truth lies

Ash settles, gates rust shut, still the lesson stays the same