Track Insight / Lyrics
You drag the can along the splintered rail
Salt crust flakes off where your knuckles press
The spout recalls each garden bed so pale
Now draws a line of rust and emptiness
Dawn paints the pilings grey with brackish light
No ferry horns, no engines waking up
Your boots know every nail and bolt head tight
The tide went out and left a copper cup
Rust at dawn, you trace the dock's old spine
Water feeds the metal, feeds the time
No flowers bloom where salt wind cuts the air
Just iron weeping where you wander there
The handle's cold, worn smooth by calloused grip
You walked this gangway thirty years or more
Before the light went dark, before the slip
Was empty as a shell upon the shore
Rust at dawn, you trace the dock's old spine
Water feeds the metal, feeds the time
No flowers bloom where salt wind cuts the air
Just iron weeping where you wander there
Lamp oil smells still cling to wool and skin
You trimmed the wick when gales blew forty strong
Now water arcs where ferry chains begin
And you keep tending what the sea left long
The can runs dry before the sun climbs high
You set it down on weathered planking gray
No one asks you how the years go by
The gulls just scream and wheel above the bay
Your fingers brush the rust where paint once shone
A keeper's habit, counting every loss
The dock stays empty, but you're not alone
The light still burns inside where waves don't cross
Rust at dawn, you trace the dock's old spine
Water feeds the metal, feeds the time
No flowers bloom where salt wind cuts the air
Just iron weeping where you wander there
Rust at dawn, the watering can rests
Salt air drinks the last few drops you blessed
