You cast your line through rusted grates
Where heat rises from asphalt below
The river hums past midnight gates
You wait where only shadows go
Iron summer holds its breath
You fish for silence in the death
No hymn remains but what you keep
No song but what the dark lets seep
You strip the bark from splintered wood
The banjo drones on porch steps low
Your altar built where you once stood
Before the choir let you go
Iron summer holds its breath
You fish for silence in the death
No hymn remains but what you keep
No song but what the dark lets seep
The cello weeps through open slats
Your voice cracks on the highest note
No congregation saves you that
Just water rising in your throat
Iron summer holds its breath
You fish for silence in the death
No hymn remains but what you keep
No song but what the dark lets seep
Foot stomp shakes the window glass
The moment breaks like broken brass
Altos hum where you once sang
The hook falls slack, the moments hang
You reel in nothing but the clang
Of iron prayers your hands have rang
You fold your rod at dawn's first gray
The fire escape sings soft and slow
No catch to show, no debt to pay
Just hymns half-remembered in the glow
Iron summer holds its breath
You fish for silence in the death
No hymn remains but what you keep
No song but what the dark lets seep
Iron summer, iron deep
You catch the dark, the dark you keep
Hum low in the iron rafters
Breath shaped like a half prayer
The hook stays baited in the air
