Gasoline Grace

Gasoline Grace

Some fires don’t start themselves.

V1

First time I saw her at the back of The Pines

Boot on the rail with her eyes on mine

She laughed like a jukebox soaked in gasoline

Pretty as a murder scene under neon green

V2

Bartender whispered, “Boy, don’t get burned”

“She’ll leave your heart like a cigarette turned”

But lonesome turns a fool into a moth at night

And danger looks holy in neon light

Pre 1

I should’ve seen the smoke in the room

But hell wore perfume and smelled like home

Chorus

That ain’t no girl, that’s gasoline grace

Matchstick smile and a storm in her face

Kisses like whiskey, smoke in your veins

Lord, I knew better, still danced in the flames

She’s Anger with Legs

V3

She smoked on the hood of that Chevrolet

Talked about God like He skipped the state

Said every man swears he’s “not the same”

Right before they leave another bruise on your name

V4

She held me close in a thunderstorm

Like holding a live wire because it’s warm

Every warning bell in my blood went red

Still I let her wreck every room in my head

V5

She could turn a kiss into a bar fight fast

Turn tomorrow into broken glass

But every now and then when the whiskey thinned

I’d catch the little ghost she’d always been

Pre 2

Who taught her love meant brace for pain

Who lit the fuse inside her veins

Chorus

That ain’t no girl, that’s gasoline grace

Matchstick smile and a storm in her face

Kisses like whiskey, smoke in your veins

Lord, I knew better, still danced in the flames

She’s Anger with Legs

V6

Her daddy drank mean till the walls turned black

Mama wore silence like a funeral hat

She said, “Get hard or disappear”

Then laughed like she didn’t care who could hear

V7

She wasn’t born angry. Somebody built her that way

Brick by brick till there was hell to pay

Every slammed door and every goodbye

Left another match in her bloodshot eyes

V8

One night she cried in the front seat low

Like somebody finally let the hurt overflow

I reached for her hand, she pulled away

Said, “Love leaves ashes where people stay”

Pre 3

Can a heart survive that much heat

Or does fire become all it needs

Chorus

That ain’t no girl, that’s gasoline grace

Matchstick smile and a storm in her face

Kisses like whiskey, smoke in your veins

Lord, I knew better, still danced in the flames

She’s Anger with Legs

V9

Whole town called her crazy for years

Cheap men pricing up her expensive tears

Funny how saints throw stones for sport

At women still breathing after war

V10

I watched her punch through a bathroom wall

After a midnight call from that shotgun hall

Then break down shaking beside the sink

Like rage and grief finally learned to link

V11

She said, “You still got time to run”

I said, “Baby, I already come undone”

Truth is some storms make dead rooms breathe

And broken folks teach broken folks to believe

Pre 4

Are we healing or feeding the flame

Some nights love and ruin look the same

Chorus

That ain’t no girl, that’s gasoline grace

Matchstick smile and a storm in her face

Kisses like whiskey, smoke in your veins

Lord, I knew better, still danced in the flames

She’s Anger with Legs

V12

Years rolled by like tires through mud

Half our nights still tasted like blood

But she quit swinging at ghosts by then

Started learning how to breathe again

V13

Still catches herself with fists pulled tight

Still got thunder underneath her eyes

But now she laughs and the room feels warm

Instead of everybody bracing for storms

V14

Sometimes healing looks ugly at first

Like poison finally breaking its curse

And sometimes the loudest hearts you fear

Are just the ones nobody heard

Pre 5

If love can reach what rage protects

Maybe we ain’t finished yet

Final Chorus

That ain’t no girl, that’s gasoline grace

Matchstick smile and a storm in her face

Kisses like whiskey, smoke in your veins

Lord, I knew better, still danced in the flames

She’s Anger with Legs

Bridge

Some people don’t break, they explode

Carry whole graveyards down every road

You call her crazy, I call her scarred

Life swung first and never stopped

And every flame that nearly killed

Was another wound nobody healed

Outro

That ain’t no girl

That’s survival in a leather jacket

That’s a house fire learnin’ how to slow dance

That’s gasoline grace

She’s Anger with Legs