Half-Turn of the Screw

[Intro]
[Verse]
Fluorescent hum in the midnight aisle
Stacking the cans with a tired smile
Found the journal in a dusty pile
Been sitting there for a long-long while
Graphite ghosts on a yellow page
Working for the minimum wage
Turning the lock on a golden cage
Acting my part on a humble stage
Pop had a way with the heavy pine
Drawing a straight and a narrow line
Tracing the grain of a grand design
Trying to make the rough edges fine
Now I’m the one with the pencil lead
Counting the things that he never said
Measuring life by the spirit fed
Instead of the debt and the daily bread
[Break]
[Verse]
Old Man Jenkins wants a pack of Kools
Life is a box of his broken tools
We are the sons of the public schools
Breaking the bread and the ancient rules
I fix the shelf with a shaky grip
Watching the oil and the water drip
Inherited habits that start to slip
Like a ghost on a sinking merchant ship
I see the grease on his denim vest
Putting the hammer and nail to rest
He passed the burden and failed the test
But he left the heart inside the chest
Now the light starts to shift and glow
Watching the seeds of the garden grow
I reap the rhythm of what I sow
And finally find a place to go
[Bridge]
It’s more than the wood and the steel
It’s how the heavy vibrations feel
Turning the rust on the iron wheel
Making the silent agreement real
I’m not a ghost in a machine
I’m the color in between the green
Seeing the things that are never seen
Keeping the workspace sharp and clean
[Verse]
Bodega bells chime a gospel chord
More than a clerk with a cardboard board
I am the pen and the sharpened sword
Finding the peace I can now afford
I finish the sketch in the margin space
Finding the lines of my father’s face
Running the final and lonely race
With a little bit of steady grace
No longer bound by the things I lack
Taking the heavy and rusted pack
I’m never looking or turning back
Following a brand new golden track
[Outro]