[Intro]
[sparse fingerpicked guitar, distant gull, room tone]
(Monterey, two a.m., the vacancy sign buzzing)
(salt in the screen door, somebody's shift just ending)
[Verse 1]
Cheap room on the second floor, the ocean doing all the talking
Pedal steel of the through-traffic, half a moon over the parking
I'm on my way to nowhere good, jacket on, the night still young
He's coming up the iron stairs, thermos cold, the long one done
Work boots heavy on the landing, lanyard swinging, eyes gone grey
Salt and diesel off the harbour, hauled the dark in off the bay
[Pre-Chorus]
He nods like it costs him nothing, I nod back like it costs me more
Two clocks running opposite, meeting at a motel door
[Chorus]
He says — headed out, or headed in?
And I don't know where to begin
'Cause I came here to mean it, came here to learn how and when
He just wants to know if I'm holding the door —
headed out, or headed in?
[Verse 2]
I've got a manifesto folded in the lining of my coat
Every oscillation memorised, every clever thing they wrote
He's got a punch card and a back that tells the weather by the ache
No theory in the morning, just the hours he's gotta make
And I know that ground, I came up off it, West Texas in my hands
Don't you romance me a working man — he'd be the first to understand
[Pre-Chorus]
He's not the salt of anything, he's just tired and he's just true
Sincerity's not a stance for him, it's the only thing to do
[Chorus]
He says — headed out, or headed in?
And I don't know where to begin
'Cause I came here to mean it, came here to learn how and when
He just wants to know if I'm holding the door —
headed out, or headed in?
[Bridge]
[organ swells, brushes pick up]
I've been swinging like a pendulum, so proud I never land
Irony in one pocket, in the other a shaking hand
But you can't oscillate a graveyard shift, you can't half-believe a wage
You just show up, and you stitch the seam, and you turn the page
[half time]
Maybe that's the whole of it — not the swing but the standing still
The meaning isn't in the doubt, it's in the showing up until
[Instrumental Break]
[pedal steel solo, weary and warm]
[Verse 3]
Now I time my evenings to it, to the changeover on the stair
Some nights I'm the one coming home, and he's the one going out there
We don't trade philosophy, we trade a nod, a smoke, a name
He's Carl. He fixes chillers. And the ocean sounds the same
And I quit trying to transcend it, quit the clever and the cute
I'm just learning how to mean it with my boots back in the dirt
[Final Chorus]
So — headed out, or headed in?
Brother, finally, both. And then
I came here to mean it, and I'm learning the how and the when
You taught me more by holding your tongue than the manifesto in my coat —
headed out, or headed in?
[Outro]
[fingerpicked, room tone returns]
(vacancy sign, two a.m., salt on the screen)
(out, and in, and out again)
(goodnight, Carl)