Devil's Shoestring

[Verse 1]
Sam's plumb bob hangs dead-still from a finishing nail.
There's a half-moon of chert dust under your thumbnail.
I sit on the porch boards, still green from the mill,
And I tie a dark root to the window sill.
It's a prayer, but the kind with its teeth showing through.

[Chorus]
So listen up, creek-water, listen up, shade,
To the bargain I'm cutting, the promise I've made.
Don't you splinter the hand that is setting the stone,
You just leave him, you hear me, you leave him alone.

[Verse 2]
It was Tuesday, high summer, the air wet and thick.
You were laughing up on the new roof's high rick.
Said, "It's just a loose shingle," with blood on your chin,
And my heart went as cold as the well-water tin.
I saw the whole sky turn the color of rust.

[Chorus]
So listen up, creek-water, listen up, shade,
To the bargain I'm cutting, the promise I've made.
Don't you splinter the hand that is setting the stone,
You just leave him, you hear me, you leave him alone.

[Bridge]
And maybe I'm talking to humidity and heat,
Just a fool making threats that the dirt won't repeat.
But I'll tear up this ground for a weed that will hold.
I'll get meaner than God to watch you grow old.

[Outro]
Don't you touch him.
Don't you touch him.