Sawdust & Static

(A cappella)
Four-eighteen on a Tuesday morning, Marie.
Your number's a ghost under my thumb, see?

[Verse 1]
(Instruments kick in: punchy drums, driving bass, jangly telecaster riff)
The screen's got a crack shaped like the Verdigris River.
Spent a whole damn year trying to forgive ya.
But some wood's too warped, some joints don't align.
Tonight I'm drawin' a new property line.

[Chorus]
And there's sawdust and static where your name used to be.
Just a ten-digit scar I'm finally setting free.
Yeah, the silence is ringin' louder than a honky-tonk band.
Got my own two feet on my own damn land.

[Verse 2]
Remember that night by the Keystone Dam light?
Felt the phone buzzin' cold, makin' everything tight.
You said, "Hank, it ain't workin', you gotta understand."
Like you're explaining a chisel to a man with no hands.

[Chorus]
And there's sawdust and static where your name used to be.
Just a ten-digit scar I'm finally setting free.
Yeah, the silence is ringin' louder than a honky-tonk band.
Got my own two feet on my own damn land.

[Bridge]
I tried to plane it smooth, I tried to make the mend.
But you can't build a house on a foundation of sand.
This ain't melancholy, this is varnish and steel.
This is the first true thing I've gotten to feel.

[Chorus]
Just sawdust and static where your name used to be.
A ten-digit scar I'm finally setting free.
Yeah, the silence is ringin' louder than a honky-tonk band.
Got my own two feet on my own damn land.

[Outro]
Yeah, a clean deletion.
And the line goes dead.