A Crooked Stitch

[Verse 1]
On Amber Street, when the first frost gets bold
There's a patch of old magic the row-homes still hold.
A little dark square on a worn marble stoop,
A neighborhood story caught in a loop.
They say that it catches the coming year's harm,
A threadbare but stubborn good-luck charm.

[Chorus]
It's just a crooked stitch on a marble step,
A fool's kind of faith for the promises unkept.
A swatch of old wool for the unspoken dread,
Believing in something your grandmother said.

[Verse 2]
She told me the story, cutting the thread with her teeth,
"It's cheaper than praying and quicker than grief."
She used Donegal tweed from my father's old coat,
The one thing he owned that could still keep him afloat.
She'd laugh and she'd say it was just for the show,
Then check every stoop walking home in the snow.

[Chorus]
It's just a crooked stitch on a marble step,
A fool's kind of faith for the promises unkept.
A swatch of old wool for the unspoken dread,
Believing in something your grandmother said.

[Bridge]
And I don't believe it, not in the slightest, but now...
It's 3:13 AM with the El train somehow
Sounding so lonely, and the cold on my hand
Is the proof of a winter I don't understand.

[Outro]
A crooked stitch...
On the cold, cold stone.