Track Insight / Lyrics
I stand bolted to the platform pine
My tube drawn long for distant line
The depot roof sags low and slow
Peeling paint where winters blow
No trains have stopped here since the fall
Timetables fade on plaster wall
My lens still sweeps the empty track
Iron rails gone rusted black
Brass eye watches, brass eye sees
Years fold down like worn-out creases
Light falls through me, gold and clean
On peeling paint and what has been
Pigeons nest in broken eaves
Their dust falls soft on copper leaves
I hold the morning in my ring
A holy circle, static thing
Brass eye watches, brass eye sees
Years fold down like worn-out creases
Light falls through me, gold and clean
On peeling paint and what has been
Altos hummed in wooden pews
Now only wind sings through the loose
Shingles rattling hymns I know
By heart, by brass, by long ago
The station master's chair stays turned
To face the tracks where no return
His inkwell dried, his ledger shut
Dust writes names in letter cut
I catch the dusk in amber glass
Watch shadows stretch across the grass
No whistle splits the quiet air
Just brass and light and patient prayer
Brass eye watches, brass eye sees
Years fold down like worn-out creases
Light falls through me, gold and clean
On peeling paint and what has been
Brass remembers. Light remains.
