Ghost in the Rearview

Rain on the manifold, rust on the chrome
A half pack of matches from a town with no home
The skyline is bleeding electric and blue
And every green light is a question of you
I fed my last dollar to a coffee machine
That tastes like the years that we buried between

Out on the midnight highway, nobody looks back
We trade all our angels for eighty miles of black
You can burn through the silence, you can outrun the pain
But you can't wash the ghost of the city down the drain
No, you can't wash the ghost of the city down the drain

There's a booth in the corner of a twenty-four hour diner
Where you said you were leaving for somewhere much finer
I watched through the glass as you faded away
Into sirens and steam and the promise of day
Now the tachometer shakes like a needle in bone
Funny how fast you can feel this alone

Out on the midnight highway, nobody looks back
We trade all our angels for eighty miles of black
You can burn through the silence, you can outrun the pain
But you can't wash the ghost of the city down the drain
No, you can't wash the ghost of the city down the drain

They told me the asphalt could swallow the past
If you kick down the pedal and hammer the gas
Turn the rear mirror straight up at the roof
So I don't have to stare at the cold-blooded proof
That leaving is easy, it's living that breaks
And the only thing louder than steel is mistakes

Out on the midnight highway, nobody looks back
We trade all our angels for eighty miles of black
You can burn through the silence, you can outrun the pain
Still the ghost of the city is calling your name

Yeah, running through the blind spots, running through the wire
Two smoking tires in a furnace of fire
Ghost of the city, let go of the wheel
There's nothing left out here for either to feel
Just the white lines fading into the dawn
And the midnight highway rolling on and on