You trace rust veins on cooling steel
Moss drinks the rain where welders kneeled
Your lens catches green eating gray
The compass spins then points the way
Silver disk in dirty palm
Keeps the quiet keeps the calm
North stays north though towers fall
You photograph it all
Pigeon feathers line the beam
Your boots disturb a forty-year dream
Shutter clicks the growing thing
Compass needle swings and sings
Silver disk in dirty palm
Keeps the quiet keeps the calm
North stays north though towers fall
You photograph it all
Cracked concrete drinks the morning light
Vines strangle pipe and bolt tight
You frame the compass on the grime
Time held still in silver rhyme
No bus schedule no curfew call
Just moss and metal standing tall
The needle trembles points ahead
You shoot the green where gray once bled
Ferns uncurl from rivet holes
Your camera steals what moss condoles
Compass face catches fleeting sun
The ruin breathes its work undone
Silver disk in dirty palm
Keeps the quiet keeps the calm
North stays north though towers fall
You photograph it all
Pocket warm from constant touch
You love this silent metal much
Final frame the compass crowns
Moss kingdom without walls or bounds
Silver disk in dirty palm
Keeps the quiet keeps the calm
North stays north though towers fall
You photograph it all
You photograph it all
Needle steady hand still shaking
Green swallows steel the compass making
