Lamp light
cheap gold
and a truth I can’t fold

Motel Bible by the ice bucket stand,
dust on the cover and shake in my hand
Half-drunk night in a nowhere town,
boots by the bed and the blinds half-down

Your lipstick ghost on the rim of a glass,
my black shirt wrinkled from chasing the past
Air conditioner hymn and a blue TV glow,
making old sins look holy and slow

I read one line, then I read it twice,
still heard your voice in the static light
I ain’t no saint, I ain’t claiming grace,
just a bad man staring his ache in the face

Short prayer, no church
just this hurt
I got my name in smoke and your touch in my blood,
and neither one’s letting up

No crowd, no band, no whiskey talk
Just me and the dark and the cracks in the wall
I could blame the road, I could blame the speed
But tonight that lie don’t fit on me

Motel Bible, tell me something true
Tell me why the night still smells like you
I got cold white sheets and a blacked-out view
Motel Bible, tell me something true

Motel Bible, sitting by the bed
Tiny gold cross on the page I read
I’ve outrun towns, but I ain’t outrun you
Motel Bible, tell me something true

Vending machine buzz in the hallway thin,
like a cheap little choir for the shape I’m in
Slide guitar crying from a radio low,
same old pain in a different code

I traced that verse with a nicotine thumb,
thinking ‘bout all of the things I’ve become
Smooth when I leave, hard when I land,
good at the fire, bad with the ash in my hands

There’s a kind of guilt that don’t shout, don’t swing,
just sits real still in fluorescent sting
Makes a man look down where his pride once stood,
wonder if the damage felt half this good

Long stare, dry mouth
no way out
I got a room full of silence and a soul half-split,
with your name all over it

No crowd, no band, no whiskey talk
Just me and the dark and the cracks in the wall
I could blame the road, I could blame the speed
But tonight that lie don’t fit on me

Motel Bible, tell me something true
Tell me why the night still smells like you
I got cold white sheets and a blacked-out view
Motel Bible, tell me something true

Motel Bible, sitting by the bed
Tiny gold cross on the page I read
I’ve outrun towns, but I ain’t outrun you
Motel Bible, tell me something true

Maybe I don’t want saving
maybe I want sense
Maybe I just need one clean line
to cut through all this bent

One room
one lamp
one heart off-balance
Funny how a paperback book
can make a man feel haunted

If mercy’s real, let it meet me here
between the buzzing light and the dried-up fear

Motel Bible, tell me something true
Tell me why the night still smells like you
I got cold white sheets and a blacked-out view
Motel Bible, tell me something true

Motel Bible, sitting by the bed
Tiny gold cross on the page I read
I’ve outrun towns, but I ain’t outrun you
Motel Bible, tell me something true

Lamp light
cheap gold
and a truth I can’t fold
yeah
tell me something true