Salt rust eats the cable stays
Mist clings thick to argon haze
Coffee's cold in booth three-four
Pie sits waiting by the door
Needle swings when wind blows hard
Counter sings its warning chord
No keeper tends this lens of glass
Just me and radium's ghostly mass
I shine above the exclusion zone
A diner sign far from home
Truckers don't stop here no more
Just dust and clicks on the floor
Paint peels red from OPEN sign
Letters burn but none align
Booth vinyl cracked from summer heat
No boots scrape on the concrete seat
Needle swings when wind blows hard
Counter sings its warning chord
No keeper tends this lens of glass
Just me and radium's ghostly mass
I shine above the exclusion zone
A diner sign far from home
Truckers don't stop here no more
Just dust and clicks on the floor
Fog horn's gone no bell to ring
Just the counter's steady sing
Bridge cables groan in radioactive dark
I mark the path for none to embark
Thirty years I kept the light
Cape Horn storms and endless night
Now I buzz on contaminated steel
Serving meals that none will heal
I shine above the exclusion zone
A diner sign far from home
Truckers don't stop here no more
Just dust and clicks on the floor
Morning comes but sun stays pale
Needle climbs off the scale
Still I flash my invitation
To a dead and silent nation
I shine above the exclusion zone
A diner sign far from home
Truckers don't stop here no more
Just dust and clicks on the floor
Argon glows through ash and bone
This keeper stands his post alone
Click by click the dark gets bright
One more night one more night