Track Insight / Lyrics
Lantern swung on hemp and oak
Now it hangs on magnetic spoke
Kept the channel, watched the shore
Now I watch the evermore
Salt and starlight on the keel
Wood and glass and orbit steel
No tide to turn, no wind to feel
Just salt and starlight, cold and real
Tar smells faint in recycled air
Vacuum keeps the timber bare
No gulls cry out, no breakers roar
Just silence on the hangar floor
Salt and starlight on the keel
Wood and glass and orbit steel
No tide to turn, no wind to feel
Just salt and starlight, cold and real
Forty years I trimmed the wick
Now the fusion core ticks quick
Storm glass steady in my hand
Pressure gauges understand
Salt and starlight on the keel
Wood and glass and orbit steel
No tide to turn, no wind to feel
Just salt and starlight, cold and real
No foghorn here, no bell buoy moan
Just reactor hum in monotone
But when the bay doors iris wide
Earth rises blue on titanium side
Two voices, one memory
Salt and starlight, you and me
Rowlocks rust but hold the line
Magnetic clamps, a new design
Still I pull an imaginary oar
Drifting past the airlock door
Phantom wake in vacuum drawn
Light years out from dusk and dawn
Salt and starlight on the keel
Wood and glass and orbit steel
No tide to turn, no wind to feel
Just salt and starlight, cold and real
Salt and starlight, cold and real
Salt and starlight on the keel
Wood and glass and orbit steel
