Cracked leather rests on the control panel
Salt air still clings to the worn flannel
Attract mode pulses like a harbor lantern
Synth chords rise through the smoke like a pattern
I watched the beam sweep thirty cold winters
Now I watch high scores flicker like splinters
Leather waits where the cabinet hums
Leather waits while the quarter drum strums
Keeper's hands know the storm and the calm
Arcade lights rise like a false dawn psalm
Joystick groans like a rusted winch handle
Button press sings in the midnight channel
CRT glow paints the glass like a candle
Pixel ghosts drift on the phosphor panel
Log book entries fade to high score initials
Three letters burn where the barnacles bristle
Leather waits where the cabinet hums
Leather waits while the quarter drum strums
Keeper's hands know the storm and the calm
Arcade lights rise like a false dawn psalm
Token slides down the throat of the machine
Brass stab cuts through the sidechain compression
Slide guitar cries where the marquee has been
Pump organ breathes its mechanical confession
Tide turns slow in this basement ocean
Gloves hold the shape of a lost possession
Leather waits where the cabinet hums
Leather waits while the quarter drum strums
Keeper's hands know the storm and the calm
Arcade lights rise like a false dawn psalm
Harmonica wails like a foghorn at midnight
Resonator slides through the gated reverb wide
Two voices braid where the kick drum hits tight
Leather and light on the same turning tide
Dawn creeps in through the service door cracks
Attract mode loops on the final credit
Gloves still warm from the night's attacks
High score table holds what the sea won't forget
Keeper walks out where the gulls cry overhead
Leather stays waiting where the synth chords spread
Leather waits where the cabinet hums
Leather waits while the quarter drum strums
Keeper's hands know the storm and the calm
Arcade lights rise like a false dawn psalm
Leather waits, leather waits, through the night
Leather waits for the morning light
Neon tide rolls out slow
Gloves hold the shape of the glow