Burn It Off

Sun comes up on an empty bottle

Black coffee in a shaking hand

Same boots, same dirt, same hollow promise

“I’ll be a better man”

I lay fence posts like I’m nailing coffins

Every swing a name I can’t forget

Sweat runs down, turns the dust to streaks

Like a ledger I ain’t balanced yet

So I work, work, work these hands to bone

Trying to outrun what my shadow’s done

If there’s fire waiting when my time ends

Maybe I can burn it off

Working away my sins

(working away my sins)

There’s a woman I left standing in a doorway

Dress caught up in the porch light wind

Her eyes said “stay” but my pride said “later”

Later never came again

Now I haul these bales like bags of memories

Every lift a lie I told back then

If the good Lord’s counting, I pray He’s watching

Every blister, every bend

So I work, work, work these hands to bone

Trying to outrun what my shadow’s done

If there’s fire waiting when my time ends

Maybe I can burn it off

Working away my sins

(oh, working away my sins)

I don’t ask for mercy

I don’t ask for peace

Just one more mile of hard dry ground

Between me and what I used to be

So I work, work, work these hands to bone

Trying to outrun what my shadow’s done

If there’s fire waiting when my time ends

Maybe I can burn it off

Lord, let me burn it off

Working away my sins

(working away my sins)