Track 8 of the compilation Transfer Point · 2009
Last Train Cypher Home
by Kane Rivers
“Last train, platform buzzing, tokens in my pocket. This is how the tape closes: tired, proud, headed home.”
boom-bap · boom-bap · late-night rap · 2:32
Lyrics
Platform lights buzzing, it's a quarter past one Tokens in my pocket and the long day's done Rhymes in my notebook, pages wet with rain Every stop a bar on the midnight train Conductor nods, he knows me by my walk Sleeping suits and strangers and nobody talks I write on my knee while the tunnel goes by Eastbound dreaming under a black-glass sky Ride it home, ride it home, last train cypher Every window is a verse and the wheels are the typer Ride it home, ride it home, city fast asleep Got a line for every stop and a promise I keep Girl with a violin case sleeping on her coat Man in a work vest counting what he wrote Old head with a paper folded under his arm Every face a story with a quiet kind of charm Doors slide open, cold air, then they close Somebody gets off where the long street goes I hold up my notebook like a lantern in the car Sixteen bars to carry us as far as we are Ride it home, ride it home, last train cypher Every window is a verse and the wheels are the typer Ride it home, ride it home, city fast asleep Got a line for every stop and a promise I keep Tunnel into daylight when the track climbs high Rooftops in the blue before the sun is nigh Last stop is mine and I step out on the stone Boots on the stairs and the whole block is home Mama's kitchen light is still burning low Fifteen years of riding just to say hello Close the book gently, the last line is done Lowkey the best verse is the one that I run home Clack and clack and clack, keep the rhythm slow Every stranger on the train is somebody I know Clack and clack and clack, let the engine hum Every dream I carry says the morning will come Ride it home, ride it home, last train cypher Every window is a verse and the wheels are the typer Ride it home, ride it home, city fast asleep Got a line for every stop and a promise I keep Last train, last train, take me home Last train, last train, never alone