Salicornia drinks the brine
Where rusted rails meet tidal line
Her roots hold sediment and stone
Before the steel claimed this as home
Steel roots drink the harbor night
Iron leaves catch morning light
Patient as the tide turns slow
We guard the tracks where engines go
Three blasts cut the wool-gray air
I push the barge with steady care
The switchman's lamp blinks green and red
I hold the channel straight ahead
Steel roots drink the harbor night
Iron leaves catch morning light
Patient as the tide turns slow
We guard the tracks where engines go
Spartina alterniflora stands
Where ballast rocks meet human hands
Her rhizomes knit the marsh to steel
A quiet pact the seasons seal
Steel roots drink the harbor night
Iron leaves catch morning light
Patient as the tide turns slow
We guard the tracks where engines go
The yard lies still in vapor deep
Where boxcars wait in frozen sleep
My searchlight cuts a golden knife
Through cotton wool of harbor life
Steel roots drink the harbor night
Iron leaves catch morning light
Patient as the tide turns slow
We guard the tracks where engines go
Neither flower nor machine
But something grown between the seams
Where chlorophyll meets carbon steel
We learn the patience time can heal
Morning burns the fog away
The rail yard wakes to working day
But roots remain and hull holds fast
We're built for seasons meant to last
Steel roots drink the harbor night
Iron leaves catch morning light
Patient as the tide turns slow
We guard the tracks where engines go
Steel roots drink the harbor night
Iron leaves catch morning light
Root and rail in harbor dark
Iron kelp leaves its mark
