Two miles out past the factory spark (Version 2)

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