I was forged in a foundry's red breath
Cut to fit a lock that held back death
Now I rest on a beer-soaked pine floor
Where the trumpet weeps behind the bar door
Brass key with no door to call home
Rust sings soft in the Chicago foam
No latch to turn no bolt to roam
Just jazz smoke and a slow creeping gloom
Once I kept a captain's log safe and tight
Through the gale and the breaker's white bite
Now a cockroach crawls across my teeth
While the bass line walks beneath the street
Brass key with no door to call home
Rust sings soft in the Chicago foam
No latch to turn no bolt to roam
Just jazz smoke and a slow creeping gloom
The lamp man checks his wick each night
I knew that rhythm clear and bright
Here the piano keys are yellowed bone
And my brass turns green in the dark alone
Brass key with no door to call home
Rust sings soft in the Chicago foam
No latch to turn no bolt to roam
Just jazz smoke and a slow creeping gloom
A sailor once held me salt on his thumb
He spoke of a port that never would come
Now the cleaning lady sweeps me into a pan
Just a useless shine for a useless man
Brass key with no door to call home
Rust sings soft in the Chicago foam
No latch to turn no bolt to roam
Just jazz smoke and a slow creeping gloom
I'll hold the shape though the lock is gone
