Dust on the shelf where the logbooks sleep
Cracked red leather a promise I'd keep
Pulled it down the binding cracked dry
Summer ninety-seven caught my eye
Found the book from summer ninety-seven
Salt-stained pages half a life I'd given
Light still sweeps but the ink stays bright
That summer ninety-seven burns all night
Scribbled coordinates a girl named Jane
Tide charts marked with a ballpoint stain
We watched the beam cut the fog apart
Two young keepers sharing one wild heart
Found the book from summer ninety-seven
Salt-stained pages half a life I'd given
Light still sweeps but the ink stays bright
That summer ninety-seven burns all night
She left on the supply boat come fall
I stayed to tend the lantern's call
Pages end with a pressed sea spray rose
Salt in the ink where the memory grows
Found the book from summer ninety-seven
Salt-stained pages half a life I'd given
Light still sweeps but the ink stays bright
That summer ninety-seven burns all night
Now the tower's automated dark and cold
My knees give out the spiral stair is old
But I hold that summer in my calloused hand
The brightest beam to ever kiss this land
Found the book from summer ninety-seven
Salt-stained pages half a life I'd given
Light still sweeps but the ink stays bright
That summer ninety-seven burns all night
