Record
The Button and the Beam
A stranger's news about a dead man's coat lets an old woman trade a button for warmth and let go of a ghost.
- Duration
- 3:08
- Last aired
- Today, 08:45
- Played
- 52 times
Lyrics
Verse
Clara climbs the attic stairs, dust puffing soft,
Tin-framed faces in the single beam aloft.
She keeps a button rusted from his coat,
The only piece of him she kept afloat.
Chorus
Oh, the button and the beam, a little light to see,
What you hold so long can finally be set free.
A rusted round of metal, a story in the rust,
You trade the past for something you can trust.
Verse
A stranger calls her name on the landing,
Says a man down south walks with the same limp.
He's got half a photograph, torn at the fold,
She matches it to Jack, the day he'd made a vow.
Chorus
Oh, the button and the beam, a little light to see,
What you hold so long can finally be set free.
A rusted round of metal, a story in the rust,
You trade the past for something you can trust.
Bridge
That coat was sold at a market stall,
The man who bought it isn't Jack at all.
She trades the button for a coat that's warm,
And lets her ghost go walking in the storm.
Chorus
Oh, the button and the beam, a little light to see,
What you hold so long can finally be set free.
A rusted round of metal, a story in the rust,
You trade the past for something you can trust.