black water hallelujah

(Verse 1)

There’s a dead moth floating in the porchlight

Moon hanging low like a noose

Daddy always said God talks through silence

Guess that explains me and you

The river’s chewing on the riverbank again

Slow as a sinner’s drawl

And I’ve been counting every ghost in this county

Like they might finally call

Your name still sounds like thunder

Rolling heavy through my chest

Like a screen door slamming in July heat

Like a prayer that never rests

(Chorus)

So pour me another black water hallelujah

Let the whiskey burn sweet through my veins

I’ve loved like a wildfire in dry country

All teeth and smoke and rain

Baby, my soul’s got gravel in it

My heart beats feral and strange

I was born with one foot in heaven

And the other digging graves

(Verse 2)

Mama wore grief like a white church dress

Pretty enough to hide the stains

And I learned young how to laugh while bleeding

How to dance in hurricane rain

There’s rust creeping up the Chevy door now

Crickets screaming in the ditch

And every small town saint I ever knew

Had a little devil in them stitched

You kiss like bad decisions feel

Warm and reckless and wrong

Like staying out past the county line

With the radio up too strong

(Chorus)

So pour me another black water hallelujah

Let the whiskey burn sweet through my veins

I’ve loved like a wildfire in dry country

All teeth and smoke and rain

Baby, my soul’s got gravel in it

My blood runs gold and strange

I was born with one foot in heaven

And the other digging graves

(Bridge)

Maybe God lives in the broken things

In the backroads and the bars

In the girls with cigarette voices

And boys with busted hearts

Maybe heaven ain’t a place at all

Maybe it’s just one perfect night

Bare feet on cracked concrete

And somebody holding you right

(Final Chorus)

So pour me another black water hallelujah

Let the neon buzz like a hymn

If loving hard’s a mortal sin

I’ll die and do it all again

Cause my soul’s still chasing something

Down roads with no names

One foot in heaven’s garden

And the other digging graves

(Outro)

Dead moth in the porchlight

Moon hanging low

And me—

Still singing to ghosts

Nobody else knows.