Bus ticket burns my coat pocket
Shutter snaps the signal socket
Sailor walks where tracks divide
Counts each step with quiet pride
Fog hangs heavy on the rail yard gate
Two souls count in different time
One marks miles on a photograph plate
One marks miles in rhythm and rhyme
Forty years on rolling water
Now I count each iron daughter
Ties and spikes replace the swell
Footsteps ring like a ship's bell
Fog hangs heavy on the rail yard gate
Two souls count in different time
One marks miles on a photograph plate
One marks miles in rhythm and rhyme
Film roll winds in trembling fingers
Captures smoke where memory lingers
Sailor's boots on wooden ties
Measure out his compromise
Fog hangs heavy on the rail yard gate
Two souls count in different time
One marks miles on a photograph plate
One marks miles in rhythm and rhyme
Logbook closed but habits linger
Count the rails, count every finger
Fog horn echoes from the past
Each step a knot holding fast
Fog hangs heavy on the rail yard gate
Two souls count in different time
One marks miles on a photograph plate
One marks miles in rhythm and rhyme
My lens sees what his steps measure
My count holds what your lens treasures
Fog lifts slow on steel and salt
Two paths cross without a fault
Camera clicks and footsteps sync
Two languages one distinct link
Sailor nods at developed frame
Teen prints fog without a name
Fog hangs heavy on the rail yard gate
Two souls count in different time
One marks miles on a photograph plate
One marks miles in rhythm and rhyme
Now both count in shared rhythm and rhyme
Shutter closes, counting ends
Salt and steel make quiet friends
