[Verse 1]
If I weren’t a carpenter
Hands calloused
Nails worn thin
Would I still break my back each day
Just to keep the cold out
Keep the hunger in?
The hammer sings
But it don’t pay
Oh
The timber splinters
Anyway
[Chorus]
If I weren’t a carpenter
Would the world treat me kind?
Would I wear a shirt of cotton
And leave this sawdust life behind?
Oh
Tell me
Lord
What’s the plan—
If I weren’t a working man?
[Verse 2]
Long hours stretch like shadowed roads
The whistle blows
I’m still not home
Dreams of glass desks
Coffee warm
No rain-soaked boots
No frozen bone
But dreams don’t fill the pockets deep
The ladder’s tall
The climb too steep
[Prechorus]
Ink on paper
Suits so clean—
Do they know what struggle means?
[Chorus]
If I weren’t a carpenter
Would the world treat me kind?
Would I wear a shirt of cotton
And leave this sawdust life behind?
Oh
Tell me
Lord
What’s the plan—
If I weren’t a working man?
[Bridge]
They say the future’s coming fast
Machines will take the tools at last
But what’s a man who’s built with hands
When the world don’t need his craft to stand?