What is “Glass Altar” about?
"Glass Altar" follows someone who cannot stop waiting for a partner who left. She still makes coffee for two, sets the table, and wears the absent person's sweater like a bruise, keeping her heart on a fragile shrine nobody may touch. The bridge admits the glass is cracking and that she is "still talking to a room," holding on to what is hurting her. Track twelve on Gasoline Hymn, it continues the album's late run of grief songs and ends on the word alone.
Glass Altar lyrics
You left the coffee mug half full
You left the porch light on the sill
You left the record on the floor
Still spinning static by the door
I wear your sweater like a bruise
I wear your name like winter shoes
I wear your silence like a ring
Tighter than any other thing
I keep my heart on a glass altar
I keep my heart on a glass altar
If you come home, don't touch the glass
If you come home, just let it pass
I keep my heart on a glass altar
I still make coffee for two
I still check the phone by noon
I still set the table, set the chair
Like I can conjure you from air
I keep my heart on a glass altar
I keep my heart on a glass altar
If you come home, don't touch the glass
If you come home, just let it pass
I keep my heart on a glass altar
But the glass is shaking, glass is cracking
And I'm still talking to a room
And I'm still keeping, keeping, keeping
What is killing me to keep
What is killing me to keep
Oh, what is killing me to keep
I keep my heart on a glass altar
I keep my heart on a glass altar
Alone