Halide Prayer

[Verse 1]
Red plastic hopper on the Scott's hand-spreader
July sweats slicking his brow, ninety-degree weather
Old Levis dusted with the memory of rock salt
He's wiping down the axle, tracing every single fault
Like it's a holy relic, not a thing you get from Sears
Forgetting thirty summers, just to focus on the gears
The plastic wheels click empty on the baked cement driveway
I'm watching from the porch, been sitting here since Friday.

[Chorus]
Wheels on the concrete, cleaning off the dust
What kind of memory you holding in that rust?
Summer sun beating, but the winter's on his mind
He's polishing a promise somebody left behind.

[Verse 2]
He mumbles to the cotter pin, a language I don't know
A ritual for ice that ain't promised any snow
Maybe it was hers, the one who kept the sidewalk clear
Now every winter task is just a way to keep her near
He told the neighbor kid, "Gotta be ready when it comes"
The kid just shrugged, went back to tapping on his drums
The whole block smells of cut grass and simmering blacktop tar
He's checking tire pressure for a war that's gone too far.

[Chorus]
Wheels on the concrete, cleaning off the dust
What kind of memory you holding in that rust?
Summer sun beating, but the winter's on his mind
He's polishing a promise somebody left behind.

[Bridge]
The same fine powder on his knuckles, gray and light
As the dust on the MPC I couldn't touch last night.

[Outro]
The foundation's got a stress crack, running floor to wall
He's staring at the sky, just waiting for the fall.