Coal dust coats his matted fur
Boxcars cough a low murmur
He don't beg for scraps or bone
Just watches switches click alone
Yard ghost glows in brakeman's lamp
Cinder eyes don't need a map
Yard ghost glows in brakeman's lamp
Cinder eyes don't need a map
Diesel shakes the frozen ground
Hound don't flinch at thunder sound
Ears twitch when the couplers clang
Tail stays dead don't mean a thing
Yard ghost glows in brakeman's lamp
Cinder eyes don't need a map
Yard ghost glows in brakeman's lamp
Cinder eyes don't need a map
Cook pours coffee black and strong
Watches through the grease-streaked dawn
Hound reflects the signal red
White hot stripe from nose to head
Yard ghost glows in brakeman's lamp
Cinder eyes don't need a map
Yard ghost glows in brakeman's lamp
Cinder eyes don't need a map
Fog lifts slow the yard goes quiet
Hound dissolves like smoke and riot
No collar tags no master's call
Just light caught sideways that is all
Shift ends cook flips the open sign
Hound's still there on the main line
Morning crew will swear he's gone
But light holds on and on and on
Yard ghost glows in brakeman's lamp
Cinder eyes don't need a map
Yard ghost glows in brakeman's lamp
Cinder eyes don't need a map
Fog swallows the beam whole
Hound swallows the dream whole
