The meter reads like a fare receipt
Another shift knocked off my tired feet
Compass needle drinks the twilight dusk
Humming low in gravel driveway musk
Dead reckoning on a broken dial
Spinning wild beneath the gravel pile
No satellite to guide me home
Just needle hum and twilight chrome
Dead reckoning I drive alone
Dead reckoning this battered zone
Passenger side holds a coffee stain
Map book pages torn by wind and rain
Radio static coughs out station names
Same old routes same old lonesome claims
Fare box rattles with the day's last pay
Tips are gone by middle of the day
Compass hums where magnetic north joins
Beneath the tires gravel softly moans
Dead reckoning on a broken dial
Spinning wild beneath the gravel pile
No satellite to guide me home
Just needle hum and twilight chrome
Dead reckoning I drive alone
Dead reckoning this battered zone
Twenty years of left and right turns
Knees pop loud when the cold returns
Still the needle finds its true
Even when I haven't got a clue
Dead reckoning sees me through
Headlights cut the driveway's dusty throat
Compass settles on a final note
Keys come out the engine finally dies
Another shift beneath the twilight skies
Dead reckoning on a broken dial
Spinning wild beneath the gravel pile
No satellite to guide me home
Just needle hum and twilight chrome
Dead reckoning I drive alone
Dead reckoning this battered zone
Needle hums till morning light
Dead reckoning through the night