You hang your gloves on titanium rail
Cracked leather drinks the pale blue veil
Stitching holds where meteor dust settles
Salt-crusted fingers know these metals
Bay doors seal with hydraulic hiss
Pressure gauges climb to bliss
No gulls cry where solar winds blow
Only hum of reactors low
Light bites the grain on worn palm leather
Quiet hangar holds you together
Orbit turns at seventeen thousand
Your hands remember every landing
Left glove bears the scorch of reentry
Right glove maps the starboard entry
Oil stains chart the years of service
Salt and vacuum they preserve us
Bay doors seal with hydraulic hiss
Pressure gauges climb to bliss
No gulls cry where solar winds blow
Only hum of reactors low
Light bites the grain on worn palm leather
Quiet hangar holds you together
Orbit turns at seventeen thousand
Your hands remember every landing
Kevlar lining thins at the knuckles
Where you gripped the rescue shackles
Plasma burns kiss the cuff edges
Logbook closed on final ledges
Light bites the grain on worn palm leather
Quiet hangar holds you together
Orbit turns at seventeen thousand
Your hands remember every landing
Morning watch would strike the brass bell
Now chronometers silently tell
Shift change comes in green numerals
No foghorn shakes the metal hulls
Light bites the grain on worn palm leather
Quiet hangar holds you together
Orbit turns at seventeen thousand
Your hands remember every landing
You trace the creases with thumbnail pressure
Map the life in worn leather measure
Each scratch a coordinate each stain a star
Retirement fits like you are
Light bites the grain on worn palm leather
Quiet hangar holds you together
Orbit turns at seventeen thousand
Your hands remember every landing
Light bites the grain on worn palm leather
Quiet hangar holds you forever
Gloves catch dawn on orbital steel
Keeper rests the watch is real
