Salt in my fingers knows this weight
Iron jaw cracked by winter's bite
No lantern here to guide the late
Just pigeons waking in the light
A rusty can waits on the stone
Before the espresso steam
The piazza holds its breath alone
Dawn cracks the night's dark seam
Thirty years I watched the swell
Now cobblestones replace the foam
The can leans quiet where it fell
A relic far from ocean home
A rusty can waits on the stone
Before the espresso steam
The piazza holds its breath alone
Dawn cracks the night's dark seam
Green paint flakes like ocean kelp
Handle bent from years of pull
It guards the seeds the gardeners help
Of tides that rose and hulls were full
A rusty can waits on the stone
Before the espresso steam
The piazza holds its breath alone
Dawn cracks the night's dark seam
No Fresnel lens to cut the gray
Just steam that curls like morning mist
The keeper watches, comes what may
His iron heart beats, wave-kissed
The keeper's hands still trace the rust
Phantom beams sweep piazzas now
Each flake a storm he learned to trust
Each dent a vow he carved somehow
A rusty can waits on the stone
Before the espresso steam
The piazza holds its breath alone
Dawn cracks the night's dark seam
Red rust sleeps on Roman stone
Waits for water, waits for dawn
