The Scrimshaw Grin

[Verse 1]
The Jubilee Pool's drowning in high September tide,
Your name's a ghost on the peeling arcade sign.
Every weld on the promenade is showing its fatigue,
A slow corrosion, a different league
of quiet failure I was too blind to see.

[Chorus]
You've got that scrimshaw grin,
Where the hairline fractures begin.
Carved on bone so the stress don't show,
A fault line waiting for the final blow.

[Verse 2]
Remember the gale that night off St Michael's Mount?
We felt the floorboards give, lost the count
of the waves hitting glass. I heard you whisper then,
"It's just ballast, love, to keep us level when
the whole world's trying to capsize us again."

[Chorus]
You've got that scrimshaw grin,
Where the hairline fractures begin.
Carved on bone so the stress don't show,
A fault line waiting for the final blow.

[Bridge]
The waterline's creeping up the bulkheads of my chest,
This whole damn thing was never put to the test.
Just painted over rust, just bailing out the sea.

[Outro]
Shearwater crying,
Or the sound of rivets flying.