The Patchwork Point

[Intro]
[Verse]
Old stone walls are cold and grey
I paint the patterns every day
Scraps of floral, scraps of blue
Marking ships that sailed on through
Nineteen-forty, HMS
Stitched into this paper mess
[Pre-Chorus]
I see the ghosts in every print
In the morning's golden squint
Every name is tucked away
Underneath a leaf of clay
[Chorus]
But the puffins come at night
In the orange harbor light
Tearing down my paper stars
Hiding all my family scars
They rearrange the floral vine
Changing every lonely line
Oh, they never let it be
This map of salt and memory
[Hook]
Click-clack, typewriter keys
Drifting on the coastal breeze
Click-clack, paper on the floor
Dancing by the open door
[Verse]
(BPM Shifting Higher)
Beaks like painted wooden toys
Making such a clattered noise
They take a strip of velvet green
Where a trawler should have been
Now the parlor's all a-mess
In a suit of patchwork dress
[Pre-Chorus]
I yell at wings of charcoal soot
They don't move a single foot
They just tilt a heavy head
To see the stories that I've read
[Chorus]
For the puffins come at night
In the orange harbor light
Tearing down my paper stars
Hiding all my family scars
They rearrange the floral vine
Changing every lonely line
Oh, they never let it be
This map of salt and memory
[Bridge]
(Low Rumbling Spoken Riddle)
Which ship carried the aunt with the silver hair?
The one in the toile, or the one in the snare?
The birds know the map better than the man
They've rewritten the world since the tides began
Is the wallpaper a wall, or is it a wing?
Listen to the wine glass start to sing
[Breakdown]
(Wine glass harmonics and bowed psaltery solo)
[Chorus]
So the puffins come at night
In the orange harbor light
Tearing down my paper stars
Hiding all my family scars
They rearrange the floral vine
Changing every lonely line
Oh, they never let it be
This map of salt and memory
[Post-Chorus]
I’m kneading dough in shapes of stone
To leave upon the porch alone
Crusty towers, salty yeast
A peace offering for the beast
Or maybe I will join the raid
And lose the world that I have made
[Outro]