You watch the boxcar breathe rust red
Quercus leaves drink what the sky has shed
Cortaderia plumes bow low and wet
Steel ribs expand in the storm's duet
Iron drinks deep like root and shoot
Each drop a note on a metal flute
Ferrous lullaby sings through the night
Oxidation blooms in absent light
You count the drips on the corrugated skin
A patient science lets the dark begin
You trace the seams where welds have wept
Taraxacum pushes where paint has slept
The porch boards groan in a minor key
While the storm conducts its symphony
Iron drinks deep like root and shoot
Each drop a note on a metal flute
Ferrous lullaby sings through the night
Oxidation blooms in absent light
You count the drips on the corrugated skin
A patient science lets the dark begin
Lightning etches the rivets' crown
Phytolacca berries stain the ground
You name the steel the sleeping steel
Arabidopsis feels what you feel
Ferrous lullaby sings through the night
Oxidation blooms in absent light
You count the drips on the corrugated skin
A patient science lets the dark begin
Morning reveals the patina's map
No two corrosion fingerprints overlap
You record the growth in a weathered book
While the freight car drinks from the brook
Ferrous lullaby sings through the night
Oxidation blooms in absent light
You count the drips on the corrugated skin
A patient science lets the dark begin
Seasons will stack like ties on a line
But tonight the rust is purely thine
You press a palm to the cold hull's song
Where iron and rain have belonged long
Ferrous lullaby sings through the night
Oxidation blooms in absent light
You count the drips on the corrugated skin
A patient science lets the dark begin
Ferrous lullaby iron drinks in
The storm writes verses on corroded tin
Rain stops the metal holds its breath
You close the book the storm writes death
