The Long Ash
Don't tap it yet, let the ash get long
Let it hold like a gray little bone
If it falls it falls. If it holds it teaches
How a man can sit and leave well enough alone
The rye don't ask for a speech or a reason
It just wants the glass to be still
I used to knock it back like I was winning
Now I sip like I've got time to kill
That's the long ash, that's the whole trick
Don't flinch, don't prove, don't run
Whiskey in the quiet, smoke in the rafters
Let the night finish what it begun
I had a woman who hated the waiting
She said you burn slow like a man half dead
I said darling that's the first true thing
Anybody's said
If the ash drops I won't start over
I'll just watch it gray on the wood
Not everything that falls is a failure
Some of it's finally understood
That's the long ash, that's the whole trick
Don't flinch, don't prove, don't run
Whiskey in the quiet, smoke in the rafters
Let the night finish what it begun
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