You wake to scrubbers humming low and slow
The vacuum presses cold against the hull
Your bench is welded where the cargo goes
A needle draws its thread through hide and wool
The lamp above you swings on gimbal chains
You taste the salt that lingers in the stains
You buff the leather count the footsteps past
Each boot falls heavy in the orbital night
Your cloth moves circular and made to last
The hangar holds its breath in vacuum tight
No lighthouse beam cuts through this steel and glass
Just rhythm in your wrist as shadows pass
The ships arrive with holds of frozen ore
Their pilots stagger down the ramp at morn
You measure arches worn on metal floor
The leather drinks the oil they bring from core
Your knife pares clean the sole's exhausted edge
New hide takes shape beneath the hammer's pledge
You buff the leather count the footsteps past
Each boot falls heavy in the orbital night
Your cloth moves circular and made to last
The hangar holds its breath in vacuum tight
No lighthouse beam cuts through this steel and glass
Just rhythm in your wrist as shadows pass
You kept a tower once on rocky shoals
The Fresnel lens swept white across the black
Now reactors pulse where ocean water rolls
You trade the storm for gravity's own lack
The logbook in your pocket counts the years
Each page a tally marked by blisters' tears
You buff the leather count the footsteps past
Each boot falls heavy in the orbital night
Your cloth moves circular and made to last
The hangar holds its breath in vacuum tight
No lighthouse beam cuts through this steel and glass
Just rhythm in your wrist as shadows pass
The glockenspiel chimes soft from central hub
You work the dubbin deep into the rub
The hangar quiets to a sleeping roar
A pilot's boot scuffs lightly on the floor
You hang your apron on the magnetic hook
Tomorrow's soles will wear the same worn look
You buff the leather count the footsteps past
Each boot falls heavy in the orbital night
Your cloth moves circular and made to last
The hangar holds its breath in vacuum tight
No lighthouse beam cuts through this steel and glass
Just rhythm in your wrist as shadows pass
