Static On The Line

There’s a hole in the drywall from a summer night

When the beer was too cold and the air was too tight

And I swore I’d be gone by the time the leaves turned brown.

Now the frost is thick on the windshield glass

And I’m watching the ghost of my twenty-somethings pass

In the glow of the neon on the edge of this dying town.

The dog’s been barking at a chain-link fence

At a world that don’t make a lick of sense

While I’m trying to remember what it feels like to be proud.

And it’s a heavy kind of quiet when the sun goes down

In a house built of wood and a heart built to drown

And I’m reaching for a hand that I know ain't there.

Just a rattled-up mind and a cough in my chest

Giving up the past and failing the test

Trying to breathe in a room with no damn air.

Yeah, it’s static on the line and a soul beyond repair.

The preacher’s on the radio talking ‘bout grace

But he ain't ever looked at this tired-out face

Or the dirt under fingernails that’ll never wash clean.

I got a brother in Vegas and a sister in jail

And a truck in the driveway that’s destined to fail

And I’m stuck in the middle of a life I didn't mean.

I used to think the stars were a map for the lost

Now I just see ‘em as stones in the frost

Keeping count of the nights that I spent being mean.

So pour me a double and turn out the light

I ain't looking for a hero or a reason to fight

I’m just looking for a way to make the humming stop

Before the bottom falls out and the curtains finally drop!

And it’s a heavy kind of quiet when the sun goes down

In a house built of wood and a heart built to drown

And I’m reaching for a hand that I know ain't there.

Just a rattled-up mind and a cough in my chest

Giving up the past and failing the test

Trying to breathe in a room with no damn air.

Yeah, it’s static on the line and a soul beyond repair.

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