Manganese

Lyrics

[Intro]
They call me the soul of steel.
The quiet partner.
The spine in the girder.

[Verse 1]
They bring me out of the dark with a pickaxe and a cough.
A fine grey powder on the tongue, in the throat.
In the hot, acrid breath of the ferromanganese smelter, I am reborn.
I marry the iron.
I make the beam that holds up your sky, your bridges, your world.
I am the strength you never see.

[Chorus]
I give the hardness to the skyscraper.
I take the sureness from the man.
It seems a fair trade.
I harden the alloy, I soften the hand.
They call it the miner's madness.
I just call it the price for my help.

[Verse 2]
It begins in the temper.
A little flash of fire in the mind.
Then the jokes stop landing.
The face forgets how to smile.
A mask of placid stone.
Doctor Beau gave it a name in 1837.
He watched the shuffle, the dragging of the legs.
The peculiar gait he saw.
His steps are short and hesitant, like those of a cock.

[Chorus]
I give the hardness to the skyscraper.
I take the sureness from the man.
It seems a fair trade.
I harden the alloy, I soften the hand.
They call it the miner's madness.
I just call it the price for my help.

[Bridge]
Alone, I am brittle. I shatter like cheap glass.
You give me purpose.
You breathe me in deep in the shaft, and I... I settle.
I find the quiet pathways in your nerves.
I still the muscles in your jaw.
Your wife asks what's wrong with you.
Your children watch you shake.
You don't have the words.

[Outro]
Just the tremor.
The little dance in your fingers.
The 'cock-walk' home from the mine.
The pickaxe that feels too heavy now.
The silent hum... inside your bones.