Prayer In Clay

[Chorus]
How you gonna teach my hands this prayer
Then leave me talking to the empty air?
This spinning clay is all I've got of you,
A clumsy ghost on Mack Avenue.

[Verse 1]
Third shift coffee and this potter's wheel,
The Packard Plant hum is the only thing that's real.
Smell of ozone from the neighbor's busted AC,
Just the drip in the sink and the city and me.
Tuesday, 2 AM, the whole house is a lung,
Breathing quiet while this work goes unsung.

[Chorus]
How you gonna teach my hands this prayer
Then leave me talking to the empty air?
This spinning clay is all I've got of you,
A clumsy ghost on Mack Avenue.

[Verse 2]
I feel the cold slip, the grit under my nails,
Another wall collapses, another vessel fails.
Remember August, porch light keeping off the moths?
You said, "Feel the center, son, don't ever force it."
Now I'm forcing it, 'cause it's all I know how to do,
Trying to shape something that looks a little bit like you.

[Bridge]
You left me the keys to the kiln but not the heat,
A half-grown pokeweed busting up the street.
Is this how you build a man?
Tell me, what's the use?

[Outro]
Just this mud and your beautiful excuse.
Still spinning.