Yeast in the Winter Dark

I clock in when the streetlights learn my name

Flour on my sleeves like a saintly stain

The ovens hum a low electric prayer

While the whole sad city sleeps without a care

I watch the dough lift slow and true

Like something broken learning to

Breathe in the cold, breathe through the ache

A tiny sun refusing to break

And I rise, rise with the yeast tonight

Under paper-thin stars and sodium light

If the winter bites, I bite back twice

Keeping warm with a stubborn light

I rise, rise, with the yeast in me

Soft but sharp as a memory

At three a.m. the sidewalks split like glass

Every parked car holding still from the past

My hands are cracked, but they know the way

To shape a little hope before the day

I watch the dough lift slow and true

Like something broken learning to

Breathe in the cold, breathe through the ache

A tiny sun refusing to break

And I rise, rise with the yeast tonight

Under paper-thin stars and sodium light

If the winter bites, I bite back twice

Keeping warm with a stubborn light

I rise, rise, with the yeast in me

Soft but sharp as a memory

Maybe we are just flour and smoke

A little burnt, a little bit broke

But the heat still finds what the night won't kill

And the smallest things can make us feel

Like we belong to the thaw ahead

Like the dawn was made from the words we said

And I rise, rise with the yeast tonight

Under paper-thin stars and sodium light

If the winter bites, I bite back twice

Keeping warm with a stubborn light

I rise, rise, with the yeast in me

Soft but sharp as a memorySo let the cold wind scrape the glass

I know this dark is built to pass

I rise, I rise, I rise