Rust Circuit Midnight (Version 3)

Intro

Copper hum, sodium glow

Clock don't stop, I already know

Verse

Punch the card at eleven, gate slides shut behind

Rows of steel and solder, breathing tin and lime

Wire between my fingers, current in my chest

Building someone's fortune, wearing someone else's vest

Boss counts up the units, I count up the years

Wages come in nickels, debt comes in arrears

Grandfather worked this floor before the roof caved in

Same machine, same hour, different rusted skin

Pre-Chorus

How many turns till the gears wear thin

How many hours till the light gets in

Chorus

Rust circuit midnight, running on the wire

Same voltage, same hour, same debt to retire

Rust circuit midnight, hands know the grind

Clocking out of body, clocking into mind

Verse

Sixteen I drew a blueprint, folded in my coat

Wanted to wire houses, not run this ghost by ghost

Now the schematic's yellow, edges soft as ash

Traded my design for a check that clears too fast

Foreman calls me steady, says I never miss a shift

Steady like a fault line, steady like the drift

Watch the sparks fall upward off the grinder's wheel

Wonder if a current ever learns to feel

Pre-Chorus

How many turns till the gears wear thin

How many hours till the light gets in

Chorus

Rust circuit midnight, running on the wire

Same voltage, same hour, same debt to retire

Rust circuit midnight, hands know the grind

Clocking out of body, clocking into mind

Bridge

Window's black at midnight, all I see is steel

Face behind the glass forgot the way it used to feel

Nobody's punching me out, no bell, no door

This the only circuit that I'm building anymore

Chorus

Rust circuit midnight, running on the wire

Same voltage, same hour, same debt to retire

Rust circuit midnight, hands know the grind

Clocking out of body, clocking into mind

Outro

Gears don't dream, gears just spin

Rust circuit midnight, running on again