Three of Pentacles

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
I’m two feet up on a pinewood bench,
Limestone powder on my boots and my shirt.
Got the 16-ounce mallet heavy in my hand,
Learning what a good hour’s supposed to be worth.
It’s cold in the nave, the roof ain’t on,
Just scaffolding reaching for a grey morning sky.
But the archway is set, and the mortar is cured,
And I’m carving the gap where the swallows will fly.

[Chorus]
Three coins in the stone, right over the door.
They drew up the map, but I know the terrain.
The paper is flat, but the rock has a mind—
You gotta negotiate with the grain.
It’s a good kind of quiet, it’s a fair kind of pay,
When the master and the money meet the hands halfway.

[Verse 2]
He’s down on the floor with his hood pulled low,
The man with the ledger and the deep velvet hem.
Next to the friar in the brown wool coat,
Holding the edges of the paper for him.
They point at the parchment, they point at the curve,
Weighing the sheet with a brass plumb bob.
Asking me if the left pillar will serve,
Asking the carver how he feels about the job.

[Chorus]
Three coins in the stone, right over the door.
They drew up the map, but I know the terrain.
The paper is flat, but the rock has a mind—
You gotta negotiate with the grain.
It’s a good kind of quiet, it’s a fair kind of pay,
When the master and the money meet the hands halfway.

[Bridge]
My brain always wants to see a face in the rock,
Finding a geometry that nobody planned.
We argue the angle, we settle the line,
The ink on the blueprint, the chalk on my hand.
They own the cathedral, they’re signing the check,
But up on this bench, I’m the one on the deck.

[Outro]
Three pentacles carved in the archway stone.
Dust in my collar.
Leave the mallet on the bench, watch 'em fold up the plans.
The rock takes what it takes, you know.
It’s gonna outlast us all anyway.