Bulb's Driftwood Throne

Lyrics

[Intro]
The wind off the water doesn't ask for a permit.
The tide doesn't file a plan.
This was never a landfill.
It was a quarry.

[Verse 1]
We found the bones of the city here.
Rebar twisting from the mud like steel roots.
Chunks of concrete, the tombstones of forgotten sidewalks.
And the bay gave up its silver wood, day after day.
Planks and branches, worn smooth as bone.
We sorted, we stacked, we lashed it all together.
Building a kingdom from what the world threw away.

[Chorus]
And we built a throne of driftwood.
Salt-bleached and sea-strong.
A king on his crooked perch,
where the gulls sang his song.
No charter, no crown, just the claim of his hands
on the wreckage of other men's lands.

[Verse 2]
They called him Bill, some called him King.
His castle rose against the fog.
Three stories high on scavenged wings,
watched over by a driftwood dog.
He built The Maze from shattered stone,
a labyrinth to lose your way,
or find it.
You were never alone,
there were faces in the clay and spray.

[Chorus]
And he sat on a throne of driftwood.
Salt-bleached and sea-strong.
A king on his crooked perch,
where the gulls sang his song.
No charter, no crown, just the claim of his hands
on the wreckage of other men's lands.

[Bridge]
Then came February, ninety-nine.
The diesel breath on salty air.
A bright yellow beast with its straight, perfect line
against everything crooked there.
It took them days to tear The Castle down.
Days of grinding and splintering wood.
The whole unsanctioned, beautiful town
that wasn't supposed to have stood.

[Chorus]
And they broke that throne of driftwood.
Salt-bleached and sea-strong.
Sent a king from his crooked perch,
and silenced his song.
No charter, no crown, just the rage in their hands
for the beauty they don't understand.

[Outro]
The throne is gone.
The king is gone.
But the rebar still sings in the breeze.
And look, down by the water...
a new face stares out from a piece of concrete.