Yellowed edges curl like old receipts
Blue lines trace where the red line meets
Nineteen eighty-two ink holds fast
Cobblestones whisper beneath the cast
Map listens winter map listens deep
Folded roads wake while the city sleeps
Taxi man knows what the paper keeps
Map listens winter map listens deep
Frost etches patterns on station names
Ghost trains rumble through paper frames
Meter ticks slow in the parked cab night
Alley stones glow in the sodium light
Map listens winter map listens deep
Folded roads wake while the city sleeps
Taxi man knows what the paper keeps
Map listens winter map listens deep
Transfer points breathe steam and soot
Commuter echoes trapped in root
Driver folds map with a calloused thumb
Winter hums low a gravel hymn
Snow falls soft on the dashboard glass
Each flake a stop each flake a pass
Paper remembers what steel forgets
Alley speaks in cigarette regrets
Morning peels the dark from the sky
New routes drawn where the old lines lie
But the map still hears the stones below
Winter wind through the grillwork blow
Map listens winter map listens deep
Folded roads wake while the city sleeps
Taxi man knows what the paper keeps
Map listens winter map listens deep
Fare box clinks with the day's first coin
Map rides shot-gun past the groaning line
Eighty-two ink and the alley stone
Share a secret only they have known
Map listens winter map listens deep
Folded roads wake while the city sleeps
Taxi man knows what the paper keeps
Map listens winter map listens deep
Map listens winter map listens deep
Fiddle fades on the final note
Paper sleeps in a wool coat