Track Insight / Lyrics
I am the wall behind the screen
Where silver ghosts have always been
My plaster cracks in slow design
A map of every fault of mine
The reels go round, the sprockets bite
I hum the hymns of celluloid light
Under the depot, under the pine
I keep the flicker, you keep the shine
Under the depot, cold and true
The frame is holding me and you
Two strangers sit on crate and floor
They never knock, they never roar
A thermos steams between their hands
A quiet truce no one demands
The bulb is hot, the shutter falls
I trace their shapes along my walls
Under the depot, under the pine
I keep the flicker, you keep the shine
Under the depot, cold and true
The frame is holding me and you
My peeling coat is oxidized
A rusted orange, recognize
The way their shoulders almost touch
A tender thing that costs so much
I am not flesh, I am not bone
But something warm has grown alone
A hymn half-known, a borrowed tune
A lantern left inside the ruin
Under the depot, under the pine
I keep the flicker, you keep the shine
Under the depot, cold and true
The frame is holding me and you
They leave a scarf, they leave a cup
The morning takes the curtain up
I count the hours they are gone
And hum the reel's forgotten song
The train above me shakes the nail
A trembling psalm, a threaded rail
I hold their heat against my chest
A wall that learned to want the best
Under the depot, under the pine
I kept the flicker, they kept the shine
Under the depot, worn and true
The frame was holding me and you
Paint curls down, the light stays through
A wall remembers what it knew
