Poronkusema

Lyrics

The man from Helsinki brought a grid of paper
Said he’s gonna map the snow from here to the sea
He’s talking about the metric system, tracking the equator
While I’m scraping yellow lichen off the runner of the sleigh
He points his little brass compass at the horizon
Tells me we’ve got exactly 14 miles to go
I just look at the antlered engine we’re relying on
And tell him the math is up to the beast in the snow

You can draw a straight line over the tundra
You can carve up the world with a ruler and a pen
But the map doesn’t care about the frozen wonder
And the paper doesn’t know when the muscle has to bend
Throw away the grid, let the needle spin blind
There is only one master of the distance and the time
When the beast says halt, then the boundary is drawn
That’s exactly how far we’ve gone

The hooves beat a rhythm on the hard-packed crust
A steady pulse that is shaking the sled
The man with the paper says hurry if we must
But my shoulders know exactly what is coming ahead
My spine slumps a half-second before the sleigh drops
Feeling the shift in the stride and the bone
He halts in the powder, the whole operation stops
You cannot argue with a schedule of his own

You can draw a straight line over the tundra
You can carve up the world with a ruler and a pen
But the map doesn’t care about the frozen wonder
And the paper doesn’t know when the muscle has to bend
Throw away the grid, let the needle spin blind
There is only one master of the distance and the time
When the beast says halt, then the boundary is drawn
That’s exactly how far we’ve gone

They keep a platinum bar in a vault down in Paris
To tell all the nations the shape of the land
But a cold piece of metal has never carried us
And a ruler is useless in a freezing hand
The most honest ledger that a man ever read
Is a warm-blooded engine taking care of the debt
There’s a steaming mark melting in the white ahead
And that’s the truest milestone we’re going to get

The man checks his watch, he’s tapping his boot
I just light a match and I lean on the wood
We’ll move when we move, and there is no dispute
The platinum rod wouldn't help if it could
The earth isn't measured by a mind in the bright
It’s measured by the body...
Stopping in the white