King of Pentacles

Lyrics

[Intro]


[Verse 1]
He sits in the shade of the wrap-around porch
In a cotton shirt woven with green grapevines
No need for a lantern, no need for a torch
He knows where the gravel bleeds into the pine
The bulls carved deep in the heavy oak wood
Under his palms where the calluses rest
He made it all work, like he figured he should
When he put his own shoulders right up to the test.

[Verse 2]
The big stone house at his back is secure
The roof doesn't leak and the cellar is packed
The brain tallies yield like a natural cure
Calculating the weight of the matter of fact
Forty-two acres of river-bed loam
Producing exactly the things that it grows.

[Chorus]
And it's a heavy kind of peace, when the empire is made
When the dirt on your boots turns to gold in the trust
No rushing the season, no hiding in shade
You just sit in the quiet and measure the dust
Got a heavy brass token right here on the knee
And nowhere on earth that you’d rather sleep.

[Verse 3]
He doesn't talk fast and he doesn't guess wrong
He watches the clouds drag their bellies on the hill
It took thirty years just to write this one song
Of keeping it steady and holding it still

Appetite satisfied, breathing in slow
Watching the green things stubbornly grow.

[Chorus]
And it's a heavy kind of peace, when the empire is made
When the dirt on your boots turns to gold in the trust
No rushing the season, no hiding in shade
You just sit in the quiet and measure the dust
Got a heavy brass token right here on the knee
And nothing out there that you still need to seek.

[Bridge]
The trouble with making a world out of mud
Is you are the gravity holding the floor
It's in the foundation, it's thick in the blood
You don't get to lay down your hands anymore
You just polish the grain.

[Outro]
He traces the bull on the arm of the chair
The house at his back, and the evening air

He's got what he wanted.
He's keeping it there.