Permanent Scaffolding

[Verse 1]
The 8:17 to Canarsie slows under the river's weight.
You're reading Kawabata and the paperback's spine is frayed.
It's been ten years since Portland, since the rain on the fire escape.
Your jawline is a memory redrawn to a different shape.
The low hum of the third rail is the only sound we make.

[Chorus]
And if I take a hammer to the hull of a ship at sea
And replace every single board, is it the same memory?
Is it still the Ship of Theseus if it's you, and it is me?

[Verse 2]
Your knuckles are still white from holding on to the chrome pole's cold.
You used to have a floor plan that I knew how to unfold.
You once said, "This city is a blueprint for a better ghost."
Now that ghost is sitting here, a story I was told.
A stranger in a familiar frame, a demolition order sold.

[Chorus]
And if I take a hammer to the hull of a ship at sea
And replace every single board, is it the same memory?
Is it still the Ship of Theseus if it's you, and it is me?

[Bridge]
The doors hiss open at Bedford Ave, a gate I don't walk through.
Is forgetting a person a way to kill them, is that true?

[Outro]
The train just keeps on moving.
So do you.