A Plank for a Plank

[Verse 1]
The copper pipe under the sink sprung a leak last fall.
My father has a wrench and a rag and a voice gone small.
He hums a low tune from a place with more sea.
This is the summer before he's not him, and I'm not me.

[Verse 2]
He shows me the threads on a brand new brass fitting.
Says, "Everything wears out, kid, just from the living."
The damp in the basement smells like river mud and rust.
He's remaking our house from memory and dust.

[Chorus]
A plank for a plank, a nail for a nail,
Is it the same boat when it's ready to sail?
A story for a silence, a breath for a sigh,
Do I have to forget you to keep you alive?

[Verse 3]
The window pane cracked from the Bevo Mill heat.
We watched the old glass splinter out on the street.
He chipped out the putty, his knuckles all white,
Building a version that can handle the light.

[Bridge]
I'm keeping the splinters, the dust in a jar,
To prove to myself that we are who we are.

[Chorus]
A plank for a plank, a nail for a nail,
Is it the same boat when it's ready to sail?
A story for a silence, a breath for a sigh,
Do I have to forget you to keep you alive?

[Outro]
He wipes his hands clean on a gasoline rag.
The new boat is finished. It carries no flag.