Rivet and Ghost

[Verse 1]
The oil-slick rainbow on the blueprint from that Lawrenceville garage
Is taped inside the closet, a half-faded collage.
That was autumn '09, the week the Allegheny crested high,
You drew a heart in pencil where the structural supports lie.

[Chorus]
We pull the rivets one by one, it's slow and careful work,
Replace the girders in the chest where different feelings lurk.
But your hand finds mine in the dark, a perfect, seamless weld,
The only solid ground this failing machine has ever held.

[Verse 2]
I smell the flux and solder from the den where you work late,
The hiss of torch on silver that reverberates.
You looked up from the bezel, and I heard you say so low,
"You're pacing again. You're gonna wake the folks below."

[Chorus]
We pull the rivets one by one, it's slow and careful work,
Replace the girders in the chest where different feelings lurk.
But your hand finds mine in the dark, a perfect, seamless weld,
The only solid ground this failing machine has ever held.

[Bridge]
(Percussion and vocal only, rhythmic and chanted)
Plank by plank
And wire by wire
Bone by bone
A different fire

[Outro]
That freight train's rattling the glass in the window sash.
Still here.