Tensile Strength

[Verse 1]
The Ben Franklin's blue necklace of lights goes dim at 5:18.
She traces the condensation on the glass, a temporary screen.
Across the river, Camden is a charcoal sketch of industry.
This new skyline is a blueprint that she's still learning how to read.

[Chorus]
This is the tensile strength, the morning-after test.
Building a love that holds its breath under duress.

[Verse 2]
The hotel air conditioner hums a low, uncertain key.
Last night's call from Lorain felt like a hundred miles of rail and scree.
"It's just a different grade of steel," she whispers to the empty chair,
"It's supposed to look lighter in this city's air."

[Chorus]
This is the tensile strength, the morning-after test.
Building a love that holds its breath under duress.

[Bridge]
And a faint horn echoes from the 30th Street rail yard tracks,
a low and hollow promise that you don't have to carry it all back.

[Outro]
Under duress...
The tensile strength.