Gas lamps sputter on the wet brick street
A letter dies beneath the walking feet
The autumn rain reads every written line
No keeper's lamp can make the meaning shine
Sidewalk tide comes rolling in
Washes clean where ink has been
Brick and salt know the same old song
Boston harbor waits too long
Blue ink bleeds brown in gutter streams
Like captain's log in drowning dreams
The paper skin turns transparent thin
Revealing bones of where the words begin
He tended light on rocky island shore
Watched storms erase what man wrote before
This city sidewalk holds the same salt bite
Paper drowns slow in fading afternoon light
Sidewalk tide comes rolling in
Washes clean where ink has been
Brick and salt know the same old song
Boston harbor waits too long
No compass rose on wet brick alleyways
Just footsteps writing new lines every day
The keeper walks where no light tower stands
Freedom tastes of salt on calloused hands
Last fragment lifts on sudden autumn gust
White sail vanishing in swirling dust
The message gone the way of all lost things
Keeper turns where church bell afternoon rings
Sidewalk tide comes rolling in
Washes clean where ink has been
Brick and salt know the same old song
Boston harbor waits too long
Sidewalk tide rolls in again
Keeper knows the shore by heart not pen
Rain stops on Beacon Street
Keeper walks on steady feet
