Needle & Thread - Eilen Jewell

Just one horse shy of a one-horse town

This ain’t the first time it tried to burn itself down

And the American girls in their American dreams

Never put themselves here, so undone at the seams

Seven bars, one church, heaven is no match for hell

In these four blocks of rust piles and abandoned motels

Old men flick quarters in the cracks of the boardwalk

And the little boys learn to cuss before they can talk

Home is the needle and thread

For the hole in the lifeboat

That it put you in

And it leaves its mark

All stamped with lead

In the lines and the grime

Inside your skin

No one here’s been famous in a very long time

But you can count the stars for days on a cold, clear night

It pierces me slowly, pulling me through

It’s the pain of undoing the tearing in two

Home is the needle and thread

For the hole in the lifeboat

That it put you in

And it leaves its mark

All stamped with lead

In the lines and the grime

Inside your skin