You watch the rust bloom orange brown
On steel ribs sleeping by the porch
The Quercus leaves shake thunder down
While Pinus needles catch the scorch
Lightning writes in white xylem lines
Mycelium wakes in soggy clay
You breathe the scent of iron pines
And watch the storm wash soot away
Boxcar rain on oxidized skin
You trace the veins where water runs
Sedum grows where rust begins
A quiet hymn for iron suns
The gallop bass shakes loose the bolts
You speak the names to sleeping weeds
Chenopodium in wall cracks salts
The storm fulfills what dormancy needs
Thunder shakes the xylem deep
Phloem carries electric sound
You feel the pulse the steel will keep
Roots anchor where the rails are bound
Boxcar rain on oxidized skin
You trace the veins where water runs
Sedum grows where rust begins
A quiet hymn for iron suns
Wooden porch boards drink the flood
Cypress knees in standing water
You taste the copper in the mud
Time undoes the manufactured order
Boxcar rain on oxidized skin
You trace the veins where water runs
Sedum grows where rust begins
A quiet hymn for iron suns
Morning glories climb the ladder rungs
Ipomoea twines the frozen brake
You hum a tune the storm has sung
For chlorophyll's green metal sake
Boxcar rain on oxidized skin
You trace the veins where water runs
Sedum grows where rust begins
A quiet hymn for iron suns
The rain retreats to mist and cloud
You pat the corroded flank goodbye
Silence wraps the steel aloud
Beneath the vast indifferent sky
Boxcar rain on oxidized skin
You trace the veins where water runs
Sedum grows where rust begins
A quiet hymn for iron suns
Boxcar rain you let it in
The storm passes roots begin
Iron sleeps in loam again
Boxcar rain boxcar rain
