Proof and Smoke
They print the proof right there on the label
Like a warning and a dare in the same hard font
I don't need a number to know what I'm holding
I can feel it in the quiet it puts in my talk
The smoke don't print nothing, it just hangs
A blue little river along the lamp
Whiskey tells the truth in a straight brown line
The leaf tells it slower, and it don't recant
Proof and smoke, that's the whole report
One burns the throat, one blesses the room
I come to the table with both my witnesses
And I leave a little later than I meant to
I used to chase a faster kind of quiet
Pills and promises and a radio God
Now I sit still till the ash needs tapping
And the glass needs a reason to nod
If judgment comes it can read the label
It can read the burn along the wood
I ain't hiding. I'm just sitting
Doing the only two things I'm good at for good
Proof and smoke, that's the whole report
One burns the throat, one blesses the room
I come to the table with both my witnesses
And I leave a little later than I meant to
They print the proof right there
They print the proof right there on the label
Short Glass Country, track by track
- 1Four Fingers of Rye
- 2Last Ember in the Tray
- 3Cedar Box
- 4Ash on a White Shirt
- 5Proof and Smoke
- 6Chair by the Dark Window
- 7Slow Pour, Slow Draw
- 8Whiskey Rings on the Good Book
- 9One More Draw
- 10Barroom Benediction
- 11Cornmash and Cedar
- 12The Long Ash
- 13Burnt End of a Prayer
- 14Lights Down, Ember On
- 15Leave the Bottle, Leave the Leaf