Track Insight / Lyrics
Salt-crusted hands on pitted steel
Dust settles on the reading rail
No gulls cry where the catalogs kneel
Just sword-light cutting through the veil
Basement lantern, hold the line
Basement lantern, burn through time
Tarnished knight in archive deep
Keeps the dark from falling sleep
Brine in the joints of armored plate
Pages breathe in temperature controlled
No horizon line to navigate
Just Dewey decimals growing old
Basement lantern, hold the line
Basement lantern, burn through time
Tarnished knight in archive deep
Keeps the dark from falling sleep
Lamp oil swapped for kilowatt hum
Fog signals now in microfilm
Every battle that I've overcome
Cataloged in cardboard trim
Basement lantern, hold the line
Basement lantern, burn through time
Tarnished knight in archive deep
Keeps the dark from falling sleep
Broad blade rests on oak reference desk
Illuminates a shipwreck map
No storm surge gives a second check
Just quiet in the temperature trap
Fresnel lens to fluorescence cold
Keeper's log to accession sheet
Every story that was ever told
Now fits in boxes, labeled neat
Shift ends when the morning staff arrive
Sword sheathed in a canvas sleeve
I walk out where the seagulls dive
And never speak of what I leave
Basement lantern, hold the line
Basement lantern, burn through time
Tarnished knight in archive deep
Keeps the dark from falling sleep
Basement lantern, hold the line
Basement lantern, burn through time
Steel sings in halogen hush
