Track Insight / Lyrics
I've felt three thousand thumbs on my edges
Sorted by numbers, wedged in the ledges
Fisherman sits where the microfiche hums
Salt crusts his collar, salt crusts his thumbs
Overdue, the stamp reads red
Overdue, inside his head
Pages curl like a tide gone slack
He won't cast out, he won't come back
Rubber boots dry on the linoleum floor
He traces a map that he drew long before
No GPS signal, no satellite ping
Just latitude lines on a yellowed string
The fluorescent flicker matches his stare
Dust coats the shelves like a salmon's despair
He mumbles a proverb my stamp knows too well
Meter runs steady through heaven and hell
Overdue, the stamp reads red
Overdue, inside his head
Pages curl like a tide gone slack
He won't cast out, he won't come back
Card catalog drawer slides shut with a sigh
Years of his catches logged low and high
No reel to retrieve what the current took
Just ink on my fibers, just ink on his book
Morning clerk finds him folded in chair
Logbook open to blank repair
My due date stamp sits unused on the desk
While his last cast sinks in the dusk
Overdue, the stamp reads red
Overdue, inside his head
Pages curl like a tide gone slack
He won't cast out, he won't come back
Overdue, the final debt
Overdue, no sunset net
Overdue, overdue, overdue
Stamp hits card one last time
Fine paid in full, no reason, no rhyme
