I keep the light I know the sound
Of foghorns low and tide turned brown
A shadow slipped the pier last night
No AIS no running light
He sleeps beneath the creosote
Where salt and signal find a home
Two chrome eyes burn like furnace coals
He writes a code I'll never know
My logbook lists the wind and rain
Not data ghosts or fiber vein
He scrapes the barnacles aside
To plug the cable cold and wide
He sleeps beneath the creosote
Where salt and signal find a home
Two chrome eyes burn like furnace coals
He writes a code I'll never know
The Coast Guard scans the radar screen
But he's a zero in the machine
I bring him coffee in a tin
He lets me watch the login spin
Corporate hunters sweep the bay
Their drones hum loud at break of day
But fog is thick and radar blind
He's safe within the ties and twine
He pays in crypto clean and sharp
No questions asked no harbor chart
At dawn he vanishes below
Where submerged servers hum and glow
He sleeps beneath the creosote
Where salt and signal find a home
Two chrome eyes burn like furnace coals
He writes a code I'll never know
My lamp still sweeps the silver spray
He'll need the dark another day
I log the weather calm and clear
And watch the pier lights disappear
He sleeps beneath the creosote
Where salt and signal find a home
Two chrome eyes burn like furnace coals
He writes a code I'll never know
Salt and signal salt and signal
Salt and signal salt and signal
Fog rolls out on slack tide now
Kerosene on my wool coat
Beam sweeps slow across the water
Quiet night at Golden Gate
