Intro
Ignition clicks off
Exhaust ticking down in the gravel
(Yeah)
Breath in the air
Verse 1
Salt on the quarter-panel, four on the dash clock
Pushed sixty hours just to clear what the bank locked
Ribcage hollow like an empty freight corridor
Running on the fumes, never asking what I'm working for
Six months flat, grey static on the wire
Walked through the winter like a stranger for hire
Jaw clenched tight till the temples were aching
Couldn't feel the freeze or the tremor in the pavement
Pulled off the bypass, parked near the culvert
Cut the twin beams, let the heavy night cover it
Slid cross the metal while the manifold was pinging
Ears still humming from the punch-press ringing
Telephone lines slice the dark into squares
Took a deep pull of that sub-zero air
Sharp down the throat like an intake of glass
First time the numbness didn't hold when it passed
Chorus
We watched the stars from a rusted hood (hood)
Breath turning silver in the wind we stood (stood)
Two miles out past the factory spark
Ice in the gravel, leaning into the dark
We watched the stars till the numbness dropped (dropped)
Verse 2
You pulled the collar to your chin, didn't speak much
Two pairs of work boots kicking through the grey slush
When you spend seasons dodging every incoming
You forget you got a pulse underneath all the drumming
Numb was the armor, numb was the tactic
Keep the head low, make the movements galvanic
Now the cold sky don't ask what we owe
Miles of velvet where the industrial lights go
Minus seven on the console, ice on the chrome
Steam off our lips making shapes of their own
Constellations tangled up in the radio tower
Sitting in the quiet of an uncounted hour
Not joy, not sorrow, just the heat in the chest
Needle in the nerve ending waking the rest
Looked down at my hands, raw red from the freeze
Felt the weight leave on a sudden northwest breeze
Chorus
We watched the stars from a rusted hood (hood)
Breath turning silver in the wind we stood (stood)
Two miles out past the factory spark
Ice in the gravel, leaning into the dark
We watched the stars till the numbness dropped (dropped)
Bridge
Spent three winters running scared of the chill
Thought if I paused then the engine would kill
Thought if I felt it, the fissure would widen
Trading off the daylight for somewhere to hide in
Now the iron ticks cold and the frost starts to creep
Nothing in the silence we're trying to keep
Just a billion white pins in the roof of the black
Thawing out the marrow that I finally got back
Outro
Hood gone cold
(Cold)
Steam rising slow
(Slow)
Right through the wire
We watched the stars
(Stars)
Still breathing