Grease pops loud on the flattop steel
Regulars order the same old meal
Radio plays a Hank Williams tune
Moon climbs high over sand and dune
Rusted tin leans on a splintered post
Watering can turns the dirt to ghost
Drive-in screen wears a canvas tear
Projection booth holds only air
Rusted tin traces lines we knew
Every night I walk on through
Truckers joke with their gravel voices
Pie gets served in paper choices
Ketchup stains on a laminate booth
Memory dust on a cinema roof
Speaker poles lean like tired sentinels
Windows fog from the engine wells
Rusted tin leans on a splintered post
Watering can turns the dirt to ghost
Drive-in screen wears a canvas tear
Projection booth holds only air
Rusted tin traces lines we knew
Every night I walk on through
Order up, two eggs over light
Bacon sizzles in morning white
But midnight holds a different script
Where the screen and the stars equip
Ticket booth rots with a padlocked jaw
Weeds grow tall where the tires saw
Rusted tin leans on a splintered post
Watering can turns the dirt to ghost
Drive-in screen wears a canvas tear
Projection booth holds only air
Rusted tin traces lines we knew
Every night I walk on through
Regular Joe asks for extra toast
Talks about the pictures he misses most
Double feature, a dime a car
Now just rust beneath the star
I refill his cup with a steady hand
Sand shifts slow across the land
Hammond swells through the diner door
Leslie spins on a hardwood floor
Brass hums low in a muted key
Night shift cook and a memory
Tin can drips on the cracked concrete
Rhythm matches a heartbeat beat
Dawn breaks pale on the chrome and glass
Another shift comes to watch it pass
I lock the grill and I wipe the grin
Rusted tin knows where I've been
Drive-in fades in the morning heat
Boots on dust, worn soles on street
Rusted tin leans on a splintered post
Watering can turns the dirt to ghost
Drive-in screen wears a canvas tear
Projection booth holds only air
Rusted tin traces lines we knew
Every night I walk on through
Rusted tin traces lines we knew
Every night I walk on through
Coffee cools in a ceramic cup
Sunrise drinks the shadows up