
Iron
It’s iron that he hangs
And he loves his work
Drives hours each day
He’s never been hurt
Got a back of steel
Burns on the sleeves of his shirt
​
He drinks too much
When stuff gets heavy
He can’t think straight
His mind gets hazy
So he stops at a sports bar
Everybody knows he’s a flirt
​
So he’s driving to work
With his head is split open
From last night’s drinking
And last night’s smoking
And he never got home
And now there will be hell to pay
​
'Cause she’ll be yelling
And he’ll be screaming
And the kid’s will be crying
Like a house full of demons
Says to himself
Why do people live this way
​
Now she says to Luann
He’s the father of my babies
I know you think I’m wrong
I know you think I’m crazy
For sticking around
While he’s drunk all over town
But you don’t see
He can be so sweet
He only gets mean when he gets in his drink
He’s good to the kids it’s just
Sometimes he gets down
​
Well the iron drops bad
And nothing seems to fit
He gets busted on his welds
he wants to just quit
He wants to curl up tight on the cold white ground
Cry
​
But he works full shift
Picks up a six
It's almost Christmas
The roads are getting slick
She is going to be at the door
And it's going to be a hell of a fight
​
So he’s an hour out of Lincoln
No shoulder on the road
And it is dark, and it's snowing
He ought to go slow
But he pushes the Ford
It planes, it slides like a sled
​
The tires hit the edge and he spins like a top
And the truck slides low in the ditch till it stops
It hurts where he banged his head
So he sits in the cab and he can’t read the gauges
And the wipers they whip like wind over pages
It’s loud static on the radio
​
It gets too light to see
He just stared
Gets too light to see
And then he got scared
Then the light was gone
It's just wipers wind turned snow
​
Well she says to Luann
He’s the father of my babies
I know you think I’m wrong
I know you think I’m crazy
For sticking around
When he’s drunk all over town
But you don’t see he can be so sweet
He only gets mean
When he gets in his drink
He’s good to the kids
It’s just sometimes he gets down
​
So he pulls back on
He drives real slow
Throws the last of the six
Out the window
In the snow
Something changed he saw light
He should've seen dark
And that’s the last time he drank
Still a hell of a fight
But she knew he wasn’t lying
When he told her bout the light
She knew he wasn’t lying about the light
​
It is iron that he hangs
And he loves his work
He drives hours each day
He’s never been hurt
Got a back of steel
Got burns on the sleeves of his shirt
Appears on mercy, The Pretty World Trilogy and Horses and Stars.