[Verse 1]
Walked out past the razor wire
Cardboard box
State boots
Tired
Twenty years of rain in my file
Parole plan folded in my pocket
Coffee in a paper cup
Name tag
Orange truck
Scooping up the neighborhood ghosts
From perfect
Plastic yards
[Chorus]
I started low
Down by the gutters
Knees in the clover and my hands in the dirt
Every bad year hanging off my shoulders
Every small paycheck just proof I got hurt
But I'm still here
Still showing up on Tuesday
Building something out of what I burned
Yeah
I'm still here
Still showing up on Tuesday
One clean yard at a time
I learned
[Verse 2]
Night school at the strip mall
Fluorescent saints on the drywall
Math like a language I used to speak
Before the bars
Before the bleach
Degree came in the mail one day
Thin white flag with my name
Taped it to the fridge like a crayon sun
And drove to the shipyards for work
[Chorus]
I started low
Down by the gutters
Knees in the clover and my hands in the dirt
Then steel and salt crept under my knuckles
Rust in my lungs and cold in my shirt
But I'm still here
Still showing up on Tuesday
Hard hat haloed in the sparks that burn
Yeah
I'm still here
Still showing up on Tuesday
Clock in
Clock out
And slowly turn
[Bridge]
Met her in the break room line
Laugh like a cracked church chime (oh)
She asked me what that number meant
On the blue ink by my thumbprint
I told her
"That's the time I lost"
She said
"We can spend what we got"
We moved in
Box by box
Hung my cap on her doorknob
[Chorus]
I started low
Down by the gutters
Knees in the clover and my hands in the dirt
Now there’s a porch light waiting on evenings
Two chipped mugs and her old band shirt
And I'm still here
Still showing up on Tuesday
Mortgage
Meetings
Kids’ homework to learn
Yeah
I'm still here
Still showing up on Tuesday
A good life stacked on the lessons I earned