The Company Ghost

[Verse 1]
"That old Bucyrus-Erie crane on Pier Six,"
(It still groans a G-sharp when the weather shifts.)
"Still tellin' that same ghost story your grandpa fixed?"
(Some stories got a gear-train that you don't mess with.)

[Chorus]
A penny for the iron, a prayer for the rivet head.
You pay the Company Ghost what you owe, or you pay with skin instead.

[Verse 2]
"It's just rust and stress fractures, man, a trick of the wind."
(That's what Dougie Ignatowski said with a grin.)
"'A sliver of your pocket for a sliver of its soul?'"
(They found his union pin in the number two ore haul last fall.)

[Chorus]
A penny for the iron, a prayer for the rivet head.
You pay the Company Ghost what you owe, or you pay with skin instead.

[Bridge]
I saw my face tonight in the oily Calumet river slag,
And for a second it was Dad's, holding a half-smoked Jag.
It ain’t a curse you're savin', it’s a name on a time card.

[Outro]
My hand felt for a nickel in the pocket of my coat.
(The wind still tastes like copper coming off the boat.)