Grab the cash
Start the car
She bites her nicotine fingernails, pale face perspires
While the sun, like a fire, rolls down backside of the hill-serpentine desires
I-80 west, construction zones
These towns, trucks, trailers framed by orange cones
Make a stop outside Elko
I can't tell the time on this dying burner phone
I listen to the train, gas station-slot machines, a revival on the radio
All that we've survived you've seen through two black eyes
Redemption on this two-lane road
State trooper ghosts where the road bends
I drift, hit the ruts, the wheel's slick with sweat
You say, That mix should kick in
I ask then swallow hard, How long has it been
We dream of nights in the back, your yard, our bare feet dancing in the grass
No, we're not young
I know that
But we'll cross county lines
Never going back
All that we've survived fades in wisps of white in the shadows of a pale-bone moon
Something drags me as I fight across borderlands, divides
In a brushfire I come to
Now my ear's pressed to her chest
Her heart fades, silent
Slow escaping breaths, slow escaping breaths
I collapse, I gotta rest
Drag our bodies through the mess
Someone had to see the wreck
Someone had to see the wreck
Now the train's bearing down
A whistle howling through the night like a woman screaming out
And I'll lean into the sound
Maybe it can take me home wherever that is found
In the tent they'd sing of peace
My father and me
Dust devils danced in drought
Those words he sang to me, Let the water set you free
Dressed in white, he held me down