You sit beside the glowing rows
Where vector ghosts in green compose
The trackball rests beneath your palm
A steady hand a quiet calm
You trim the wick of pixel light
Through the long synthetic night
The cabinet hums low and deep
While the city falls to sleep
You kept the lantern burning bright
Through storm and fog and endless night
Synth chords replace the old lamp beam
But watchfulness is still the theme
You trim the wick of pixel light
Through the long synthetic night
The cabinet hums low and deep
While the city falls to sleep
The marquee flickers PLAY AGAIN
In phosphorous and scanline rain
You count the credits one by one
Before the dawn breaks over head
The power hums in copper veins
No foghorn sounds no driving rains
Just vector lines electron dreams
And you the keeper of the beams
Your fingers know the worn down keys
Like ropes and rigging salt and breeze
The joystick pulls a steady course
The only compass that you know
You trim the wick of pixel light
Through the long synthetic night
The cabinet hums low and deep
While the city falls to sleep
The high score holds a keeper name
Etched deep in glass untouched by fame
You'll guard this glow till morning breaks
For all the night the daylight takes
You trim the wick of pixel light
Through the long synthetic night
The cabinet hums low and deep
While the city falls to sleep
Quarter moon fades slow and low
You watch the final high score go
