Lyrics

Camouflage keep me secret
Almost invisible
Interior life I lead
Me and myself

Protecting the private sanctum
All that’s my inner world
Fly on the wall I’d climb
Up on the shelf

Smoothe slayer
Started losing scales
More layers
Slithering closing in on your zig zag trail

Disguised from inside my snakeskin
Looking so tough but wears thin
Sliding
Hiding
Inside my snakeskin

Strike first seems like it’s built-in
Shedding how hard it’s all been
Wriggling around
Slipping out
Of my old snakeskin

New barrage daily sequel
Can’t say desirable
Inferior thing most times
I just won’t miss

Reflecting with iridescence
Trying to lay as low
Keep crawling along in waves
Over this abyss

Sidewinder
With an iron grip
Pathfinder
Hothead with a tail like a cracking whip

Disguised from inside my snakeskin
Looking so tough but wears thin
Sliding
Hiding
Inside my snakeskin

Strike first seems like it’s built in
Shedding how hard it’s all been
Wriggling around
Slipping out
Of my old snakeskin

Wise sage
I’m just a ghost rider
From a vanishing age
Lone racoon
What’s the secret to survival
I’m staging a revival here

Times change
You’re still hiding like a bandit
In a century that’s strange
Out of tune
Message going viral
From a curving spiral frontier

Be home soon
Lotsa blind alleys
Long way from Cali
Still I’m ready to reconcile even rally
Mississippi Valley return
Mississippi Valley on my way Sally
Big yearn
Mississippi Valley my final finale
Return

Clouds pass
Whichever way the wind blows
Still can’t see through smoked glass
From saloons
Getting repetitious
Circle sure is vicious I swear

Live fast
No matter how I run it comes
From out of the past
Dead balloons
Wheel without the motion
But always the notion is there

Be home soon
Lotsa blind alleys
Long way from Cali
Still I’m ready to reconcile even rally
Mississippi Valley return
Mississippi Valley on my way Sally
Big yearn
Mississippi Valley my final finale
Return
Mississippi Valley I see now I’m not walking alone
Mississippi Valley just a wayward one coming home

Somewhere in the void
Between mercy and serenity
From some small yarn
Falling down barn
Open land with dying grass
And twisted trees

Now there’s a phantom in its place
Not even half of what it used it be
But I ain’t worried
No big hurry
Still got my monochrome memories

It was in the last picture show
I could see something
Like I like it
Going nice and slow oh oh
Even now as I try to write
You radiate the heat of night
That silver screen glow
The lost world I know
The last picture show
Sometimes I drift off
Your shadows flicker
Blurry image instant chain
Glamour’s dwindling
Time keeps swindling
But across the decades
You come like summer rain

Childhood in black and white
But don’t even ask me
Just what I believe
Different drummer
Endless summer
Hiding out from myself
And my company

It was in the last picture show
I‘m still defiant
I want the world
Turning sweet and low oh oh
Up until my time is through
I’ll be thinking of and seeing you
Dark movie house from long ago
Breath of fresh air good inflow
The last picture show

No regrets
Well maybe just a few
But I’ll never forget
My life and times with you

Tomorrow meant a new road
Exploring we did our share
Every rambling episode
Home was anywhere

Grounded some and that’s alright
Lead on
Every dawn
Has to end in night
We saw the sights
It’s all finite
Nature’s sweet delights

When my traveling days are over
Not sure I’d even mind
Where there’s two like me and you
No one’s a loner
Treasure’s what you find
Each path of discovery
Grows cold or goes sideways
At least while we reigned we blazed
Getting close to a faraway gaze
Thinking back on my traveling days
Traveling days

Wanderlust
The need to change the place
That was surely us
But the swift don’t win the race

Remembering the small things
That’s what it’s all about
Even if our feet had wings
Time is running out

Still there’s hope for the darkest night
My friend
Around the bend
Now we just might
Hit the highest heights
Spirits soar in flight
To the Southern Lights

I’m walking away from my traveling days

Bordertown
Heading down
Next to Mexico
Windy gust
Eating dust
Highway 118

Far west side
Devil’s ride
A new fandango
A few exits past
McMurtry’s last
Abandoned scene

Destination Terlingua
Fascination atlas obscura
Straight ahead keep chasing the thread

Dragonfly in my Texas tequila
Moody skies over Lost Gringo RV
Let’s drive by the old Starlight Theater
Where adobe walls
Meet liquid neon dreams
Primitive
Way to live
Blasting radio
Empty place
On the face
If you don’t see ghosts

Let them be
Humanity
Learn to let it go
Fade away
All someday
Read the worn sign posts

Destination Terlingua
Fascination atlas obscura
Straight ahead keep chasing the thread

Dragonfly in my Texas tequila
Moody skies over Lost Gringo RV
Let’s drive by the old Starlight Theater
Where adobe walls
Meet liquid neon dreams

Seen some dark days this house
Once was a haven
It’s pretty plain black and white
You’re the fugitive kind

Animal trapped claws out
Afraid you’ll cave in
Now we’re both undercut
It’s all intertwined

Wild one walk away
Just turn your back n’ leave it all behind
Setting sun another day
Your freedom’s won n’ now it’s time
Come with me across this county line

County Line
Strangling you like a creeping vine
County Line
Tangling rose it’s just another sign
County Line
Wrangling with the same old county line
County Line

No taming you for long
Everlasting loner
But the lore of these hills
Grapes of wrath hold you back

Native to you to flee
I ain’t your owner
I’m on your side can’t you see
The façade start to crack

Wild one walk away
Kill the ghosts for good let the myth unwind
No dream to chase or hell to pay
Forgotten place ain’t no goldmine
Come with me across this county line

County Line
Strangling you like a shuttered shrine
County Line
Tangling rose decay in decline
County Line
Wrangling with the same old county line
County Line

I never knew you
You didn’t get to know me
Ghostly guru
Might have got on famously

I’ve had the bluest of blues
But your music like magic
Made it all the way through
With a kiss what a blessing for this

Livinia
In absentia

I’m telling my Sun Belt stories
To whoever’s listening
Western and Southern territories
I’m a man on a mission

Sun Belt Stories
Some shame some glory
Sun Belt Stories
Tales of virtue and sin
I’m telling my Sun Belt stories
again

Silent teacher
I wish you were still here
Part time preacher
Your message won’t disappear

Like hands across centuries
Reading your diaries
Paints portraits of you
Hidden meanings you whisper to me

Livinia
In absentia

I’m telling my Sun Belt stories
To whoever’s listening
Western and Southern territories
I’m a man on a mission

Sun Belt Stories
Allegories
Sun Belt Stories
Of right now and back then
I’m telling my Sun Belt stories
My friend

Now driving
Slow with all the windows down
North wind
Macon sign says sixty miles

Then sleeping
Underneath the sparkling stars
Tomorrow
Get lost in the Golden Isles

Dear Georgia
Haystacks in Spring
Sweet rakes of light
Peachtree upswing

Dear Georgia
I’m worshiping
Heaven’s presence
It’s a mystical thing

Just thinking
Of moonshiners’ Thunder Road
GA 9
And how an era ends

Here’s hoping
You’ll tell me you’ll take me in
One of your own
Cobb County like old friends

Dear Georgia
Haystacks in Spring
Sweet rakes of light
Peachtree upswing

Dear Georgia
I’m worshiping
Heaven’s presence
It’s a mystical thing

Dear Georgia
Open letter to you
When we met past life dèja vu

Dear Georgia
I’m breaking through
You’re the one I’m looking to

Went all around most every city
Sifting through the stories
Hailed the common ground
Watched unlikely heroes

But town to town show no pity
Drifting territories
Like a witness see it all go down
Next day start back at zero

So difficult to communicate
Sentences impossible to formulate
Hard to put in words
Something as natural as the
Songs of the birds

Nothing more to say for now
Guess I had to get it off my chest
It’s all just me scrawling thoughts
In my notebooks from the West

Documenting dive bar
To mountain crest
I do my level best
In my Notebooks from the West
Trace the troubled times we live in
Chronicle the voiceless
Deep down we’re all scarred
Without the past no future

Rise above you can’t give in
See pathways through the pointless
Foreign land my own backyard
Cleve the fact from rumor

So critical to investigate
Halls of history reverberate
With letters pictures paint
The elements our guardian saint

Gotta make sense of it all
Can’t keep me from my quest
It’s all just me sorting out
My Notebooks from the West

Celebrating small star
To Eagle’s nest
Nothing close to the vest
In my Notebooks from the West
All inscribed from inside for my tribe
In my notebooks from the west
Set to rhyme long hard climb lost in time
In my Notebooks from the west

Always looking to belong
To the world not so withdrawn
Like in the land of Oz

I had to leave to find it out
Nowhere better no doubt
Golden one you give me pause

You got me in a dream state
Who knew a place
Could be a real soul mate
By day your sunshine radiates
By night I’m deep in meditation
On your moon beam
You caught me you’re my supreme
Dream state
You’re just a dream state

Couldn’t wait for my turn
Sometimes failing’s the way to learn
That’s what the poets say

Winding path from Motown
Spent some years thinking upside down
Eldorado Nation hideaway

You got me in a dream state
Who knew a place
Could be a real soul mate
By day your sunshine radiates
By night I’m deep in meditation
On your moon beam
You caught me you’re my supreme
Dream state
You’re just a dream state
Dreamscape dream state

Lost in the universe
Can’t find my way
What’s going on
All over today

What they’re calling progress
Nobody can agree
Someone from somewhere in time Come n’ save me

Now which way is up
This is getting me down
I’m fighting the driest desert
But I feel like I could drown
Well I can’t even stand
To look at the news
Welcome to
The Twenty First Century
Twenty First Century Blues

Found a few answers
From digging down deep
Feeling wide awake
When the world’s fast asleep

Forward’s slow n’ foggy
The struggle to be free
We listen but are we hearing
Can we be believing what we see

Now this way’s so tough
All this grinding on the ground
Do we rocket to another planet
Race to break the speed of sound
We’re living in an age
We don’t get to choose
Welcome to
The Twenty First Century
Twenty First Century Blues

Forging ahead
Shaping the story
Taking matters into my own hands
However faded the glory

Taming this jungle
Into a garden
Now I’m older wish I could say wiser
Just salty bitter and hardened

Making my own universe
Inside I’m everything anywhere
Pouring into the open form
Reworking scrap iron solitaire

Blacksmith’s hammer down
Sparks hit ground
Blacksmith’s hammer pound
Blacksmith’s hammer down
The anvil sounds
Blacksmith’s hammer pound

Grinding with grease
Slowing commotion
Against the race to the future curse
I’m getting the notion

Middle of chaos
Under thunderclouds living
No wonder I’m reaching backwards
Present tense relentless unforgiving

Dredging up my old school ways
Planet inner life influence
The piling on intrusion’s gone
My boundary’s this barbed-wire fence

Blacksmith’s hammer down
Sparks hit ground
Blacksmith’s hammer pound
Blacksmith’s hammer down
The anvil sounds
Blacksmith’s hammer pound

Silent screamer slammer dreamer
Blacksmith’s hammer down

From purple sage
To gambler’s gold
I’ve made an atlas of splashes
Of bad blood in red clay

Gasoline ghosts
Quiet as the grave
They hunt for safe haven
While I gather answers along the way

Just trying to widen the horizon
So letting go of some people and things
Escape this unforgiving landscape
You say grow roots well I say grow wings

Fellow soldier
I reach out to a brother in arms
I’m getting bolder
Walk away from the grind
Pay no mind false alarms
Handwrite uncover
Scrawl again in my dog-eared scratchpad
Here’s a fistful of notes
From an armor-clad Nomad

Notes of a Nomad
For bonfire nights like this
Notes of a Nomad
To each their own
For me the road to Fort Bliss

Pathfinder scout
Scours place to place
Images etched some quick sketches
How I see it I try to say it in words

Without within
Taming angels and demons
But I gotta get going again
I can tell by the sound of the birds

Traveling light threads unraveling
Won’t conform to the norm where grief is rife
Sticking with my hard spartan mindset
I’ve been waiting for tomorrow all my life

Fellow soldier
I reach out to a brother in arms
I’m getting bolder
Walk away from the grind
Pay no mind false alarms
Handwrite uncover
Scrawl again in my dog-eared scratchpad
Here’s a fistful of notes
From an armor-clad Nomad

Notes of a Nomad
For bonfire nights like this
Notes of a Nomad
To each their own
For me the road to Fort Bliss

Couch surfing smash up another crash pad
Fistful of notes from an armor-clad nomad

Lords of the plain
In their open range domain
Those original Badlands bison herds

Now the Chieftain returns
Overcoming the powder burns
Pounding down on greener pasture
The fighting mighty giant’s grandeur
Can’t do it justice with words

Buffalo Roam Revisited
Buffalo Roam Revisited
Survival is their heritage hard spirited
Triumph you can’t capture it
Revival’s what it is
Grazing the prairie
The way they once did
Buffalo Roam Revisited
Mavericks’ stateside home unlimited
Buffalo Roam Revisited Buffalo Roam Revisited

Empire regained
Dominion back unchained
Returning heroes in their habitat

In the order of things
Know theirs is the walk of kings
Keep on is the lesson here
Never say die just persevere
Seems it all comes down to that

Buffalo Roam Revisited
Buffalo Roam Revisited
Survival is their heritage hard spirited
Triumph you can’t capture it
Revival’s what it is
Grazing the prairie
The way they once did
Buffalo Roam Revisited
Mavericks’ stateside home unlimited
Buffalo Roam Revisited Buffalo Roam Revisited

Ringing

Like circle discs of metal

On the tin roof at the screen door

Pelting rhythm widespread

Bringing

Life to the leaf and petal

Another second summer downpour

Gathering cloudbursts overhead

Warm Storm Rain

Watch water trickle

Down the window pane

Warm Storm Rain

Coming our way

On the winds of change

Blowing

Off and on just now resuming

Balmy breeze taps at the shutters

Sideways river slants in air

Slowing

Bowing down all that was blooming

Awash in gray spray flooded gutters

Heavens bursting everywhere

Warm Storm Rain

Dreams of taking

Off by midnight train

Warm Storm Rain

Jet stream flying

Up the mountain range

There’s a sentinel among us

A witness to ten centuries

In a place they call

The Big Farm Mandeville

Her roots still planted firmly

In the ground massive trunk to crown

Buck’s Brown Derby ink and twill

Spirit singing like a whip-poor-will

On this one time Crawfish Town

Across from The Big Easy

From the table in the back at

Ruby’s Rendezvous

I’m resonating with her

The resilience the watching guard

Real solidity and truth

Buried soul but broad reaching roots

A thousand years on earth

Covered in hanging Spanish Moss

Forty foot round girth

A history you can see hazy layering like smoke

Dreaming up invisible tales of the

Seven Sisters Oak

Seven Sisters Oak Seven Sisters

Seven Sisters Oak Seven Sisters

In the presence of magnificence

Is the passage to blooming promise

Always glazed light over

My Crescent City days

Natural bastion of serenity

Out of focus faded green

Close your eyes the image stays

Float through hourglass alleyways

During trying times

The tree holds strong and stalwart

Savior in Acadia white

Seduction so wide and deep

Kinfolk locals and travelers through

Like Luna Moths to the Hollywood South

Front porch memories to keep

Calm as ancient tea leaf sleep

A thousand years on earth

Covered in hanging Spanish Moss

Forty foot round girth

A history you can see hazy layering like smoke

Dreaming up invisible tales of the

Seven Sisters Oak

Seven Sisters Oak Seven Sisters

Seven Sisters Oak Seven Sisters

Mirrored reflections

Of themselves in the water

Woodland walls of auburn

Fall colors all across the lake

Small flock of Blue Herons

Slow and deep the way their wings beat

The shine in the ripple

A Diamondback water snake

It all grew up around me if I recollect

Rose tinted then and yet in retrospect

Tupelo Anthology

My handmade lines on a lifetime

Marked memories

Tupelo Anthology

Been chasing the circling sun

Among some black gum trees

Represent my southland testament

Full of promise but to be honest

No guarantees

Tupelo Anthology

From a dreamer dedicated to nothing

Nothing but the breeze

Oh-oh my Tupelo Anthology

Assigning meaning

To these penetrating trances

Stargazing through the mist

Working in search of this place

Resurrecting images

Painting pictures lately slanted

Have to track my way back

Relive it to the limit then retrace

Moss grassy green against the deep indigo

An idealized eternal tawny afterglow

Tupelo Anthology

My handmade lines on a lifetime

Marked memories

Tupelo Anthology

Been chasing the circling sun

Among some black gum trees

Represent my southland testament

Full of promise but to be honest

No guarantees

Tupelo Anthology

From a dreamer dedicated to nothing

Nothing but the breeze

Oh-oh my Tupelo Anthology

With California Lilly

Riding Phoenix to Riverside

Mojave red firecrackers

Spiny thistles sun baked and dried

Monkey Tail and Prickly Pear

As far as the eye can see

Blossom on a stalk the Century Plant

Giving way to grand Fan Palm trees

Unhidden are yesterday’s ways

Was all the same with nobody in it

Fleeting thoughts as I sense the scene

Makes me pause for more than a minute

They go on keeping their vigil

Western Mockingbirds their all night song

Heat wave crooning in the moonlight

Revelry lasting all year long

The fabled bygone times still halcyon

All the while a new day every dawn

And the wildflower fields roll on and on

Along the Cactus Flats

Just a couple of desert rats

Along the Cactus Flats

The Ocotillo highway

Coyote Mountains as I look north

Couch whip lining the ragged path

The perennial back and forth

High on the side of old Camelback

The weathered pipes all lean and fall

Timeless beauty Wanted Dead or Alive

I’m taken in by the ghostly sprawl

Sun and wind have left their mark

Within these ruins I came to wander

The view through my window into the past

Best turns are next just over yonder

They go on keeping up their vigil

Western Mockingbirds their all night song

Heat wave crooning in the moonlight

Revelry lasting all year long

The fabled bygone times still halcyon

All the while a new day every dawn

And the wildflower fields roll on and on

Along the Cactus Flats

Just a couple of desert rats

Along the Cactus Flats

Been bouncing around

Surveying sights southbound

Wasteland winds blowing

Kicking up a dust

Drinking the dregs

From my days old coffee cup

Eyes in the rearview bleary

Blame my sleepless wanderlust

Riverbeds on empty

Dying Giant Wild Rye

Hang it all on hope’s last grain

Again here high and dry

This year a Crimson Harvest

Tangerine and clementine

Covering ground moving all around

Like Goat’s Foot railroad vine

Violet’s burning turning blood brown red

A life up and down the line

Looking back on times tinged with scarlet

This year the Crimson Harvest

Crimson Harvest

No counting the moons

With my steadfast dashboard tunes

Windshield haze building

Twisted road on repeat

Outrunning

All the things reminding me

Of crops from a withered season

Shine lackluster pale as wheat

Late October meadows

Forsaken silent now

You sow the seeds even weed the soil

Barren yield stuck wheel and plow

This year a Crimson Harvest

Tangerine and clementine

Covering ground moving all around

Like Goat’s Foot railroad vine

Violet’s burning turning blood brown red

A life up and down the line

Looking back on times tinged with scarlet

This year the Crimson Harvest

Crimson Harvest

Navigating by the sun and the star

Somehow ever-knowing where they are

From up in the vast expanse of the sky

Backyard birds feathered wings soaring high

As the world heads into winter equinox

You start hearing and seeing the migrant flocks

Always towards the light

Looking for longer days

Formation formed in flight

The liberation never ceases to amaze

One of nature’s great wonders

This chasing endless summer

Since time first began

The eternal struggle’s all about

Flying Colors Flying South

Old odyssey you symbolize

Overcoming obstacles on the rise

We all dream of breaking free from constraints

Explore the unknown hold sacred the saints

Graceful movement effortless glide

Following magnetic fields the ageless ride

Always towards the light

Looking for longer days

Formation formed in flight

The liberation never ceases to amaze

One of nature’s great wonders

This chasing endless summer

Since time first began

The eternal struggle’s all about

Flying Colors Flying South

Destination Nowhere Oklahoma

Gas pedal fever settling in

Heading out of Planet Arizona

A whole lotta Nothing no prize to win

Don’t know where I’m going don’t care

It’s all in the getting there oh

Destination Nowhere Oklahoma

The black top traveler

Is never intent on arrival

A lifetime road warrior

Looks for gateways eyes on revival

Find your lane it’s a pilgrimage

Go on without a goal

Seize each day find the courage

Comes a time to feed the soul

Destination Nowhere Oklahoma

Gas pedal fever settling in

Heading out of Planet Arizona

A whole lotta Nothing no prize to win

Don’t know where I’m going don’t care

It’s all in the getting there oh

Destination Nowhere Oklahoma

The constant messenger

Is the moonlight lit directions

Home next hotel register

Just the driver and his chrome reflections

Cutting loose staying unattached

There’s not a target to achieve

Just chasing down something silent

When things get rugged just up and leave

Sometimes I miss

But I never stop trying

Steady taking aim

Getting anchored arrows flying

Purging evil

In myself confront the shadow

I’ve gotta hit the target

Tough as life the straight and narrow

I’m off the mark

Still I search for truth and freedom

A knife blade cutting through

Workhorse with this sawtooth

Wrong guy on my shoulder I don’t need him

Magpies & Bullseyes

Mine’s the tale of the archer

Making my way through to inner rings

Shooting for the point of departure

Resize things edgewise

Draw it back pull the bowstring

Letting it go who knows where it’ll land

Showing up that’s the main thing

Magpies & Bullseyes Magpies & Bullseyes

Disillusioned

I was lost in Winter City

Now I’m facing danger down

Dealing with that nitty gritty

More words on birds

But it’s here I’ve found my purpose

Read between the lines

Meaning deeper than the surface

I’m on the hook

Deliver make good reach unbeaten

I try to zero in

Reconciled understood

Bitter lessons linger better sweeten

Magpies & Bullseyes

Mine’s the tale of the archer

Making my way through to inner rings

Shooting for the point of departure

Resize things edgewise

Draw it back pull the bowstring

Letting it go who knows where it’ll land

Showing up that’s the main thing

Magpies & Bullseyes Magpies & Bullseyes

Frayed edge

Loose ends

Life scars

Salvage

Hurt mends

Dim stars

Dead pledge

Transcend

Little victories can be ours

That’s the way it is with us

Threadbare

Time-worn

That’s all

Work wear

War torn

Let fall

Repair

Twice born

Stand tall

Patched up but still tried and true

Just down a bit Denim Blue

Last chance

You think

But no

This dance

Cross links

Plateaus

One glance

Rose pink

Only goes to show

The faded glory in the stone washed hue

Just down a bit Denim Blue Denim Blue

Snake bite anti-venom

Broken in Denim Blue

Dog fights hard to win ‘em

Broken in Denim Blue

Ain’t brand new but holding up in Denim Blue

Regain

The past

Awaken dreams

Maintain

A point-of-view that’s vast

Revisit old themes

Blood rain

May be in the forecast

But it’s never as bad as it seems

Unraveling can bring hidden strength

Hails from the high dry desert
Been on the long road
Since day one
Still floating out a hook line
From time to time
Southern light like midnight sun

Another day another diner
Choose a target
Try to write it down
Destination detour
Outbound again
Plain truth got no hometown

He’s just a wild west six string slinger
Tells the stories with his hornet’s stinger
Weaving notes into a tapestry
The wanderer’s rhapsody
Wanderer’s rhapsody

Cross the next state line big sign
Touring all the places
In between
Pick axe as messenger in his hands
For the common man
All fire and gasoline

Nighthawk gypsy nocturnal
Crash landings
Hit the rugged streets
Journeyman’s fortune
The player’s way
Life and rhymes new tracks and beats

He’s just a finger picking fretboard ringer
Songster scribe and somedays singer
Lush wall of sound but harsh reality
The wanderer’s rhapsody
Wanderer’s rhapsody

He’s just a wild west six string slinger
Tells the stories with his hornet’s stinger
Weaving notes into a tapestry
The wanderer’s rhapsody
Wanderer’s rhapsody

Station gate
Next sideways destination
Limbo lies in wait

Every time
I search for meaning
There’s another hill to climb

Onwards now
I just gotta get there
Iron will stoic anyhow

Seasons change
So do towns and names
I’m riding in shotgun range

Been learning how to hang back
Recognize the roundabout way
Playing at staying off the beaten track
Year-in-year-out day-by-day

Destiny guides each episode
To some mine’s a lonely tale
Rebuild again time traveler’s code
Guess I’m always scrambling
All roads lead to gambling
The Rambling Trail The Rambling Trail
The Rambling Trail The Rambling Trail
Dime store myth
I’m renovating low key
A working wordsmith

Herdsmen gone
The great rancher’s tradition
Fenced in then tread upon

Giant size
Crisscrossing until they end
Dream catcher clouds fill the skies

Vistas west
Down to sunken valleys
Up to many a mountain crest

Been learning how to hang back
Recognize the roundabout way
Playing at staying off the beaten track
Year-in-year-out and day-by-day

Destiny guides each episode
To some mine’s a lonely tale
Rebuild again time traveler’s code
Guess I’m always scrambling
All roads lead to gambling
The Rambling Trail The Rambling Trail
The Rambling Trail The Rambling Trail

Twisting yearning questions burning The Rambling Trail
Snaking winding path spellbinding The Rambling Trail

Been all through the lower states

In hot pursuit of the true self

The great unknown territory

But no muscle car can beat the fates

And experience ain’t found on bookshelves

Behind the wheel’s all that’s real hunky-dory

Was planning on coming back spurred on

Leaving the trouble and hurt

Well in the past foregone

Secrets from the inside track withdrawn

Wisdom’s just some word

But driving away

Bat-out-of-Hell replay

Always essential

Asphalt Confidential

More mystery up around the bend

Guided by ghost riders nameless

It’s a curious kinda undertaking

Off the grid on the road within

I tell you plain it ain’t aimless

A little enlightenment in the making

Was planning on coming back spurred on

Leaving the trouble and hurt

Well in the past foregone

Secrets from the inside track withdrawn

Wisdom’s just some word

But driving away

Bat-out-of-Hell replay

Always essential

Asphalt Confidential

Drinking vino in a red vinyl booth

Thinking something of the vanquished

Always rubs off on the victor

Shadowed canyons on the outskirts

Tucson all-night diner again

Rootlessness the predictor

Nagging conviction that a better life

Lies over the horizon on the other side

Stretching possibility

The promise of new liberty

Rambler’s confession

Now I can confide

Moving for the sake of motion

Freight yards and roadhouse bars

Cafés motels rough truck stops

Bus stations on the fly boxcars

Low key country riding high lonesome

Reeling from the feeling I’m real gone

The middle of nowhere

Somewhere way out there

The Back of The Beyond

The Back of The Beyond

White lines flashing on the thoroughfare

Fine time in the midst of Saguaros

Forcing me to become some sun chaser

Same walls I’ve been staring at

For too long so I start to climb them

Getting away is the one great eraser

Lost with drifting mystics in the ebbing tide

A sea of searchers roving no taking aim

Settling keeps on wearing thin

The locking horns the hemming in

The ancient art of survival

Vagabonds stake no claim

Moving for the sake of motion

Freight yards and roadhouse bars

Cafés motels rough truck stops

Bus stations on the fly boxcars

Low key country riding high lonesome

Reeling from the feeling I’m real gone

The middle of nowhere

Somewhere way out there

The Back of The Beyond

The Back of The Beyond

McCreary County Kentucky

Rebel Railroad Pigeon Forge Tennessee

Red Garter Saloon hard times unlucky

Pa’s Cabin rising flames stirred third degree

Old 77 the stuff of legend

Thundering out of the rolling hills

Summertime heat crows cry I reckon

For the ruins of the dream gives you the chills

Icons gone but they never die

Alive where collective imagination lives

Can’t bury the past still close the days gone by

A rightful tribute these memorial narratives

Ball of fire at Tombstone Junction

Steam locomotive heading out for parts unknown

Consuming plumes of smoking destruction

Combat zone in the land of our own home grown

Epitaph inscription surely’s gonna say

He walked alone had to be that way

Farewell to Tombstone

Tombstone Junction so long farewell

Gas station lights near Whitley City

Staring at the edge of the frontier

Train on the tracks the ride rough gritty

End of an era now just history book years

In it every minute some new lesson

Can’t yield to those who keep dashing hopes

Adapt to the facts that’s our only weapon

Fight our way back independence on the ropes

Recollections make a scroll king size

For invisible scars much to forgive

Can’t forget the fallen in a thousand tries

Respect acknowledgement imperative

Ball of fire at Tombstone Junction

Steam locomotive heading out for parts unknown

Consuming plumes of smoking destruction

Combat zone in the land of our own home grown

Epitaph inscription surely’s gonna say

He walked alone had to be that way

Farewell to Tombstone

Tombstone Junction so long farewell

Tombstone Junction farewell

Tombstone Junction In our hearts you dwell

Hitting spots hid on the map
Hot Rattlesnake stew
Panhandle on the top
Blood brothers smoke bomb barbecue

Longhorns on our Cadillac
We’re cruising Jot ‘em Down
Tanglewood, Utopia
Gun Barrel City, town

Horseshoe Bay then Bigfoot
Two hawk moths to the flame
Mucho mas Dinero
Cut and Shoot Lovelady’s game

Lone Star I’m so Loco
Frisco, Sour Lake
Paris, Bacon, Hogeye
Deer in headlights double-take

Riding through
Going slow burn
Got my drive by view
Round Rock, Twitty, no wrong turn
How do you know
What dern wrangler ropes to learn
It’s a Texas-shaped world mine’s a Point Blank sojourn

Zig zag with Sundown Slim
Whistling this six flags hymn
Oh oh Sundown Slim

Darker part of twilight
Been to Kingsville next is Spur
Nameless, Muleshoe, Harmony
Uncertain guess we were

Telegraph and Telephone
What could be Stranger than
A place called Weeping Mary
There’s Bug Tussle, Cool, Tarzan

Western flair Tornado Alley
Eastern side of south
Reciting monikers
It’s making me a motor mouth

Sugar Land to Bee Cave
Blanket, Fate, and Industry
Zephyr all together
Towards the Big D symphony

Riding through
Going slow burn
Got my drive by view
Round Rock, Twitty, no wrong turn
How do you know
What dern wrangler ropes to learn
It’s a Texas-shaped world mine’s a Point Blank sojourn

Zig zag with Sundown Slim
Whistling this six flags hymn
Oh oh Sundown Slim

Take her easy slow burning with Sundown Slim
Getting greasy wheels turning with Sundown Slim

Antelope Spring
Santa Fe Railway
Clearing my mind
The heaven this time
Towering summit where
The snow never melts

On top of Mars Hill
Army of Shadows
Bear Jaw on the trail
Leave the world hightail
Mount Elden with its mythic
White icy sunbelts

Old Blackjack Ponderosa Pine
The universe versus the lonesome dove
But just looking straight up
At all the silvery stars above
Find release
Real peace in the stunning sightline

Dead Horse Ranch
Splintered winter branch
Old Blackjack Ponderosa Pine
Dead Horse Ranch
Splintered winter branch
Crescent moon I’m tuning in to the sublime

Along Route 180
Bathed in red sandstone
The Rio de Flag
Dressed in ragtag
I’m a mystic misfit
On a mission for bliss

Fall in Walnut Canyon
A forever formation
Something bigger than you
The force of nature breaks through
We’re all a small part
Of this place I reminisce

Old Blackjack Ponderosa Pine
The universe versus the lonesome dove
But just looking straight up
At all the silvery stars above
Find release
Real peace in the stunning sightline

Dead Horse Ranch
Splintered winter branch
Old Blackjack Ponderosa Pine
Dead Horse Ranch
Splintered winter branch
Crescent moon I’m tuning in to the sublime

In the fast lane comes change
Still going but slowing to a crawl
I’m slipping out of home range
My guidance resistant downfall

Cadillacs and wildcats
The juke box driving the roadside joints
Era’s over it’s plain to see
From every vista vantage point

Longing for something
I can’t quite name
Trying to get back to simple beginnings
Suddenly filled with doubt
Seems like my way of life’s on the way out
Our truck-flattened history is ending

Mourning for the flowering dogwood
Those were never better days
Don’t I know it but good
Remembered or imagined
The glory years the hard living’s done

Take it from your wayward son
Wayward son

No shade in the hot spot I’m in
Tense between Old West and new
Couldn’t adjust lacks discipline
Lost American myth no use to stew

Honkytonks and nighthawks
Vanishing like my one-stop-sign-town
Sinking low and so with me
Should be reaching for the mountain’s crown

Longing for something
I can’t quite name
Trying to get back to simple beginnings
Suddenly filled with doubt
Seems like my way of life’s on the way out
Our truck-flattened history is ending

Mourning for the flowering dogwood
Those were never better days
Don’t I know it but good
Remembered or imagined
The glory years the hard living’s done

Take it from your wayward son
Wayward son

Weather hot and sultry
Dark clouds hang above
Fork in the road like loaded dice
Which one will be the withered branch

Skies filled somber layers
Raindrops scattered wide
The kind just before the deluge
Giving place to the avalanche

Shelter still some twelve miles
In the distance
Yet I fear no flood thick skin
And my passive resistance

I’ve been crisscrossing
All through this lifelong haul
To whoever can hear me talking
Hit a stone wall just stumbled
Sunrise slowing to a crawl
Looking for Heaven
Here the eleventh hour
But there’s every indication
Of a coming storm heavy shower
Before Nightfall Before Nightfall

Weary worn down soldier
Washed out iron horse
But I’m reaching deep for the wherewithal
It’s a dead heat tug-of-war

Endurance expedition
Each chapter taught me again
Be double-hinged open both directions
Like a Dogbox train swing door

Remember when the easy ride
Gets rougher
Setbacks hijacks make you
That much tougher

I’ve been crisscrossing
All through this lifelong haul
To whoever can hear me talking
Hit a stone wall just stumbled
Sunrise slowing to a crawl
Looking for Heaven
Here the eleventh hour
But there’s every indication
Of a coming storm heavy shower
Before Nightfall Before Nightfall

Honor its own reward

Blessings overtake desire

The true confessions of a rogue

Man on fire

Blind faith uphold dignity

Onward empty path austere

Not a saint seeks salvation in a word

Hands tied abide nowadays that’s clear

Land of Grace

Some majesty from hard wisdom

Devotion I must commemorate

The silent province

That far away crowning kingdom

Is balance not a place

Still searching for that Land of Grace

Divine skyscape

A small hymn for sacred space

The Land of Grace

Steadfast for uncertainty

Fortune same as centuries past

The real tyranny in my soul

Is myself I know at last

Escape no limitation
Feeling like I’m floating
In a world satin smooth dead level

Full-blown transformation
Ramshackle yields to balance
No more drifting going slowly towards the devil

That was then when
Luck was dwindling fortune in decline
Now everything it’s looking ideal
Ethereal divine

Surviving right on the borderline
In between sleeping and waking
Symbols fly by
Sense of freedom
Cloud nine

Wildest dreams true by design
Visionary in the making
Fueled by the night
Of the black light moonshine
Crossing the borderline

Nirvana highly stylized
Scene surrealistic
Time and space somehow seeming all suspended

Disjointed turning stabilized
Rawhide rope whipping old regrets
Restoring a soul that’s mostly been upended

So far away it’s hard to say
Can’t convey quite define
The vivid colors the vibrant sheen
A half-conscious goldmine

Surviving right on the borderline
In between sleeping and waking
Symbols fly by
Sense of freedom
Cloud nine

Wildest dreams true by design
Visionary in the making
Fueled by the night
Of the black light moonshine
Crossing the borderline

Desolation Street

Now a vacant town
That seems all but forgotten
The main drag marked
By swinging beaten signs
They sway from the hangman’s rope
Lately luck’s been rotten

Dry winds the only sound
Dust blows by can’t rise from ashes
Abandoned truck
Faded paint three threadbare tires
Empty store fronts say
How a place howls when it crashes

Scattered rubble nature always reclaims the land
Shaken to its foundation the buildings barely stand

Been around for ages
Like the Honey Mesquite
Feeling more than a little bit
Wistful weary tastes so bittersweet
Knowing your world is going
Soon to be obsolete
Dragging pulse the tempo keeps slowing
Low down on Desolation Street
Undone Nation it’s high time you meet
Your Desolation Street

Brush and tumbleweeds
Lookout Point up the hill on the outskirts
Survey if I could see
Any sparks of life in the sparse night lights
Boom years crumbled
Defeated hell it hurts

Poet’s echo plea
Scrawling again the bleak depiction
Letters hanging loose
On The Royal Theater marquee
Box office boarded up
Gospel Truth reads like pulp fiction

Cruising the last avenue domino by domino
“Lovesick Blues” still playing on the car radio

Been around for ages
Like the Honey Mesquite
Feeling more than a little bit
Wistful weary tastes so bittersweet
Knowing your world is going
Soon to be obsolete
Dragging pulse the tempo keeps slowing
Low down on Desolation Street
Undone Nation it’s high time you meet
Your Desolation Street

Built our pillars high
On foundations centuries strong
But daybreak’s gray and dim
These our troubled states
This could be our twilight song

Her torch bronze luster down
Burning ashes cinders at our feet
Across the wilderness
We’ve lost the solid rock
The grit that paved the streets

Echo forevermore
Revere the intercepted messenger
Lantern’s lit laid at your golden door
Breaking the fever rising temperature
If we lift to the sky
It’s good faith bona fide
United is the one way I
Try to see all views slay this great divide
I’m eagle-eyed personified
I’m off to Ride the Wide Countryside
Ride the Wide Countryside

Sea washed sunset gates
Those broad and majestic days
Bring on the waves of change
Voices carry over fists
So we won’t have Caine to raise

Returning hero brave
By deed and act redeemed
Tempest-tossed now breathing free
An anthem for smashed promises
Midnight run for stolen dreams

Echo forevermore
Revere the intercepted messenger
Lantern’s lit laid at your golden door
Breaking the fever rising temperature
If we lift to the sky
It’s good faith bona fide
United is the one way I
Try to see all views slay this great divide
I’m eagle-eyed personified

I’m off to Ride the Wide Countryside
Ride the Wide Countryside

Of blood moons
Hurling lightning bolts
From their wicked hunter’s eyes

Six star feathers
One time rulers
Of the brick red skies

Might be myth or superstition
Omen’s maybe written on the wind
Across abandoned flatland fields
Death wish from above they descend

Thunderbird Empire
Ride into the light
Of the black dark night
Wonder bird Hellfire
Thorn of fallen kings
Rain clouds under their wings
Forever flying higher
I’m your outlier testifier
The Lost Thunderbird Empire

The Lost Thunderbird Empire
Looking for the Lost Thunderbird Empire

Vulture in the storm
Approaching on the ridge
Trailing smoke from its tail

Skull and bones
In the airborne dragon’s lair
Born to fight tooth and nail

Slayer still tracking prey
Out of cold caves and ravines
Wingspan three times man devil’s soul
Gray days bring the killing machines

The Lost Thunderbird Empire
Looking for the Lost Thunderbird Empire

I guess I’m destined
To chase the wind
Anticipation ‘til
The highway ends
Can’t always figure
What’s up ahead
Just a restless searcher
Southwestern bred

This here’s an ode
To the open road
With its twists and turns
Takes me away
From these times hard bitten
Just a simple ode
To the open road
Lifelong elegy
Novel stories I see
As yet unwritten
Ode to the open road

Things can look alright
From behind the wheel
Ditch the crowd
Shield is chrome and steel
City’s pinning me
I’m all roped in
But Shangri-La is waiting
Just around the bend

This here’s an ode
To the open road
With its twists and turns
Takes me away
From these times hard bitten
Just a simple ode
To the open road
Lifelong elegy
Novel stories I see
As yet unwritten
Ode to the open road

Hunter’s cry

From the woods bone dry

Gonna rally the crew

Team start the chase

Locking eyes

Hypnotize

Follow the scented trail

Pick up the trace

Tonight I’m howling like a wolf

In moonlight prowling

Tearing up rough turf and track

Howling like a wolf

No fight just growling

Running with my wild pack

It’s just this way

Can’t quite obey

I’m living by my code

Drawn to the call

Tell you plain

I’m a reckless strain

No domesticating me

I’ll go AWOL

Tonight I’m howling like a wolf

In moonlight prowling

Tearing up rough turf and track

Howling like a wolf

No fight just growling

Running with my wild pack

Growling howling like a wolf

Prowling howling like a wolf

Hanging my hopes on
U.S. Route 99
Calexico Mexicali Rose
Ink black exit sign

All along the western shore
Of the Salton Sea
Towards the L.A. Interstate
In my beat Jeep Cherokee

Desolation Angels
No man’s land
The world through the windshield
Always on the gritty side of grand

Got my guitar and harmonica and my
Highway City Chronicles
Drive all night we’re no prodigals
Crying apparitions
Whispering bones unsettled skulls
My Highway City Chronicles
My Highway City Chronicles

Drifting no fixed place
Bounce around this vagabond
Willing pilgrim got no ties
Nomadic and beyond

Which turnpike you take pure risk
Ghost of a chance
I was born to follow the sun
Imperial Valley trance

A few words on the truckers
Passing by
Don’t need to apologize
Explain defend or justify

Got my guitar and harmonica and my
Highway City Chronicles
Drive all night we’re no prodigals
Crying apparitions
Whispering bones unsettled skulls
My Highway City Chronicles
My Highway City Chronicles

Acadian
Mixed in with Memphis
Rambling mystic realm
Washboard rakes fiddle drips molasses
Revolving rolling spell
Hauling squeezebox at the helm

Echoing
Your triple meter
Brothers the songs live on
Porches and dancehalls
The colors stay with us
Still swaying when the playing’s gone

Deliver me like you do
Bewitching chords still ringing true
Age-old but always new
Bayou blues cloud nine
Divine soundtrack
Cajun waltz come take me back
Cajun waltz Cajun waltz

Accordion
Collapsing in rhythm
Staccato Creole tunes
First beat’s strong
Everybody’s moving
The ground’s all stomping shoes
To your syncopated spoons

Prince Edwards Isle
French roots showing
Zydeco bluegrass blend
Jambalaya
Crawfish pie gumbo
Ghosts unite ascend

Deliver me like you do
Bewitching chords still ringing true
Age-old but always new
Bayou blues cloud nine
Divine soundtrack
Cajun waltz come take me back
Cajun waltz Cajun waltz

Barren portrait

Flat valley floor

Dotted with cactus and sage

Disintegration part of the lore

One time oasis

Then water sinks into sand

Crystal desert this sultry day

Meet Americana’s last stand

Watching the glory fading

As Paradise Falls

Blasting sun blaze no shading

Paradise Falls

Crashing as trees keep climbing

Paradise Falls

Down to bare bones just bad timing

Paradise Falls

Bleakest hour

Twin Palms Café

Time lapse in photographs

Steel support strength rusting away

Memory’s lost highways

Mind’s eye gallery of ghosts

Signs were all around us

Mounted on splintered posts

Watching the glory fading

As Paradise Falls

Blasting sun blaze no shading

Paradise Falls

Crashing as trees keep climbing

Paradise Falls

Down to bare bones just bad timing

Paradise Falls

Ancient man

From some unknown clan

Same weaving liquid snake

Wandering tributary

From Sullivan Lake

Northwestern AZ

Down through the forest shade trees

The water makes its way

Rapids racing

The world is ever changed

Here near the edge of

Phoenix Basin

Verde River flowing through all-time

Verde River winding like an old vine

Thunderstorms

Late summer so warm

Arroyo whitewater runs

Spring snow now melted

By the blistering sun

Horseshoe Reservoir

Mossy green Chino Valley star

Sycamore Canyon Road

Nesting eagles

Holding their own

This story of their trials

Reigning regal

Verde River

We’ll leave the strife behind

Verde River

Your past life keeps running

Verde River

We’ll leave the strife behind

Verde River

Your past life keeps running

Through my mind

Light and shadows

Nights and days collide

Broken windows

Looking in from outside

Trouble comes and finds you

All the kinds you’re blind to

You never see it coming

The doomed doorways

But there’s been satisfaction

Maybe not the main attraction

But the battle just plays out

And replays

Half in the Sunshine

Half in a moody shade of noir

Part of a painted landscape

Part of the night sky dark star

Guess that’s the way it is

The way these times are

Sunshine and noir

Sight and blindness

Each story has two sides

Forget and forgiveness

It’s up to the winds and the tides

Wonder where the place is

You see good will in the faces

Whether you’re winning big or

Nursing a losing streak

Fortune is just trickery

Like a neon sign that’s flickering

Fall to the valley floor

Or scale the peak

Half in the Sunshine

Half in a moody shade of noir

Part of a moonlit landscape

Part of the night sky dark star

Guess that’s the way it is

The way these times are

Sunshine and noir

Lana’s last turning

Restless drifter’s met his match

She’s his femme fatale

Seaside inn now he’s her catch

Postman always rings

A second time to make double sure

Everyone gets their mail

Postcards from the edge his from her

Hotel Laguna

Within your paneled walls

Hotel Laguna

Myth makers and their sweet downfalls

Hotel Laguna

Inside those hallowed halls

Hotel Laguna

Shadows creep all the while time crawls

Hotel Laguna

Long eyelashes

Phantom figure smooth as silk

Tall and cool dressed all in white

Blonde trouble soft skin like milk

Golden girl bringing

Supreme façade just out of reach

Midnight swim hired help chances slim

Fogged in for life night on the beach

Hotel Laguna

Within your paneled walls

Hotel Laguna

Myth makers and their sweet downfalls

Hotel Laguna

Inside those hallowed halls

Hotel Laguna

Shadows creep all the while time crawls

Hotel Laguna

Passing the days

Looking for ways

To get around the mountain

He had journeyed long

But which way was wrong

It had to be found gilded fountain

Path growing cold

Fortune hunter stayed bold

Still he felt the hourglass empty

Then he fell as he saw

Crushed skull and bear claw

He cried damn the amber that tempts me

Seeking the El Dorado legend

Fool’s gold in the hills that beckoned

Leading him straight to a dead end

The El Dorado legend

Seeking the El Dorado legend

His very life’s existence threatened

Wise up wisdom is a godsend

The El Dorado legend

Losing his strength

Worn road at length

He met the lurking revenant

I’m pleading said he

Tell me where can it be

Before I return to the elements

Wranglers met death

Who came before has no breath

Hope you find what you’re looking for

Only catch is

The magic can never be his

His Eureka moment was chasing folklore

Seeking the El Dorado legend

Fool’s gold in the hills that beckoned

Leading him straight to a dead end

The El Dorado legend

Seeking the El Dorado legend

His very life’s existence threatened

Wise up wisdom is a godsend

The El Dorado legend

True you weren’t always there

But when you spoke

Your words would ring

Told me deal on the square

Or whatever you may gain

You’ll lose everything

Stay within reason

You would say

This isn’t Eden

Find the sunray

You defined it the world

Now I’m reminded to pay

This debt to you

My man from Louisiana

To me you stood as tall

As a Redwood tree

Transplant from the grassland savannah

To the hills of California

By the Western sea

Army hat and blue bandana

My man from Louisiana

I’m still your wild Lantana

My man from Louisiana

The years have shaped memory

Now careless deeds

All seem so blessed

The twenty first century

So lonesome with you gone

Now who would have guessed

Keep falling forward

That’s your voice

Freedom or cornered

Make the choice

You designed it my faith

All mankind can rejoice

In a soul like yours

My man from Louisiana

To me you stood as tall

As a Redwood tree

Transplant from the grassland savannah

To the hills of California

By the Western sea

I can’t forget you don’t wanna

Looking up to you

Your very own devotee

Family with you was no Nirvana

I’m you’re mirror JC

I’m you and you are me

Forgotten strangers unwritten pages

Brave nomads on the move

Travels without leaving traces

But listen to the wind

Seek universal truths

Our endless crossing back and forth

East and West South and North

When there’s no record to go by

All we can do is imagine

The Far Country is

Closer than you think

Somehow homeward bound

The Far Country

Survival doesn’t just happen

It’s something earned not simply found

Our boots are on this noble ground

It’s Far Country we’re riding through

The Far Country surrounds us

It’s Far Country

That sound is their sighs you hear

The Far Country’s near

Coming in hushed but blue sky clear

The Far Country

The low downtrodden sacrifice honor

Never and always with grace

Wherever it is we may wander

Searchers changing

But not the soul (thread) of the place

Blood brothers and sisters too

Like a wolf on the mesa I’m tracking you

When there’s no record to go by

All we can do is imagine

The Far Country is

Closer than you think

Somehow homeward bound

The Far Country

Survival doesn’t just happen

It’s something earned not simply found

Our boots are on this noble (storied) ground

It’s Far Country we’re riding through

The Far Country surrounds us

It’s Far Country

That sound is their sighs you hear

The Far Country’s near

Coming in hushed but blue sky clear

The Far Country

Far Country I’m standing here humbly

The Far Country floating above me

I’ve been gone

Without even leaving

My inner life and times

Just keep on thieving

All along

Shadows and controversy

Going it alone

Sometimes solitude no mercy

I’m telling you

I’m no stranger to lonesome

Played my fair share

Of solo solitaire

Good times I can’t deny

I’ve known some

Been an uphill battle I swear

Can be a real struggle getting there

Sympathy for sure I’ve shown some

Still I’m no stranger to lonesome

No stranger to lonesome

What’s going on

You hesitate not saying

A one-way dialog

It’s a penance not worth paying

Familiar song

Full of melancholy

But no roses without the rain

Self-pity is pure folly

I’m telling you

I’m no stranger to lonesome

Played my fair share

Of solo solitaire

Good times I can’t deny

I’ve known some

Been an uphill battle I swear

Can be a real struggle getting there

Sympathy for sure I’ve shown some

Still I’m no stranger to lonesome

No stranger to lonesome

It started out

In Black Rapids Roadhouse

Son of a drunk

From Cedar Hill

A rebel rabble rousing

The devil in Levi Strauss

Soon he raised the gates of hell

A chill like a winter kill

It ended up

In a hail of fire

Six-gun bullets flying

And so he fled in a cloud of dust

By then it was getting

Down to the wire

Barflies pleading give it up

He just turned to spit and cussed

The Ballad of Cody Jarrett

Now an outlaw he’s raw white heat

Fierce and fiery

Desperado made of mean spirit

Resolve like rebar set in concrete

Wanted dead or alive

Pale rider right by his side

Nobody left nowhere to hide

The Ballad of Cody Jarrett

He saw us all

As his mad adversaries

Battle and clash

The hardest way

All roads lead to

Sleepy Hollow cemetery

Or some graveyard in a snake pit

His time this judgement day

But they say he’s out there

Still roaming the high plains

Looking over his shoulder

Rogue soldier on the lamb

Ghostly figure

Clad in iron cross chains

One thing we can count on

He doesn’t give a damn

Perched in cottonwoods and mesquites

They take flight

Majestic soaring

Over open fields

A mile up in the air

Swift dart dive bombs through willows

To the lowland streams

Dreamlike floating

Battling back

From out of nowhere

Gray Hawk Rising

Flying into open skies

Gray Hawk Rising

Crying out reaching new highs

Gray Hawk Rising

Growing numbers fifty pairs

Gray Hawk Rising

Knowing freedom’s finally theirs

Raincloud raptors on the Pecos

Flap and guide

High style gliding

Up from southerly way

On winds to border towns

Wingspread mouth of the river

Habitat

Keeps on changing

Adapting to now

It’s the new solid ground

Gray Hawk Rising

Flying into open skies

Gray Hawk Rising

Crying out reaching new highs

Gray Hawk Rising

Growing numbers fifty pairs

Gray Hawk Rising

Knowing freedom’s finally theirs

Lost neon wasteland

Far cry from King’s Graceland

Sharkskin sheen sinks down to low style

Chasing fortune and fame

Twenty four seven

But not like

Ocean’s Eleven

The strip has been

Slipping mile by mile

Oh my Flying V

Don’t forget about me

Take me with you on your journey

Into space

Rocket flights starlit nights

We can look down on Vegas landing

Hi fi desert what a sight

Mood is bittersweet as I write

From up here

Dark sand bright sparks of white

Sin City sky

Nevada lights from on high

Nevada lights from on high

Once a hot boneyard

Then the Rat Pack my old guard

Pioneer Club sign those days I miss

How far can you get

From Made in Heaven

The question itself

Is the lesson

Can’t believe the

Cowboy’s tale has come to this

Oh my Flying V

Don’t forget about me

Take me with you on your journey

Into space

Rocket flights starlit nights

We can look down on Vegas landing

Hi fi desert what a sight

Mood is bittersweet as I write

From up here

Dark sand bright sparks of white

Sin City sky

Nevada lights from on high

Nevada lights from on high

Leaving Barstow

Inland Empire crossroads

Old Spanish Trail

Now Route 66

South to Palm Springs

Hearing those same Scott’s Orioles sing

Arid world

The devil’s playground depicts

We’re in the land

Of atomic sun

Bullhead City

Rain shadow dry run

You find the Silence

In the Joshua Tree

Beauty and violence

Hand in hand in Mojave

Westward journey

Guided by the Joshua Tree

Westward journey

Guided by the Joshua Tree

Desert sandman

Weathered leather bronze tanned

From the high on stable

Of great falling stars

You’re prehistoric

Standing so stout and stoic

Uphill climb

No feathered nest no wood tar

Still in these times

Of transonic speed

Slow death valley

Against a warrior’s creed

Find the Silence

In the Joshua Tree

Beauty and violence

Hand in hand in Mojave

Wise iguana

Rough chuckwalla tell me

Thriving rival relic of survival

Unlock the mystery

Secret Joshua Tree

Westward journey

Guided by the Joshua Tree

Westward journey

Guided by the Joshua Tree

My ripping ride hard shifting

You’re bouncing up and down

Around inside my wake

Hot sand shooting up under my wheels

It’s blinding you can’t see

I’ll make your engine bake

It’s an outsider art

Victory was mine from the shotgun start

Rough n’ rugged but I stay fluid

Pure power

Sky high voltage undiluted

I’m throwing my rooster tail

I’m really going blowing like a gale

Kicking up a low down n’ dirty rusty dusty trail

Throwing my rooster tail

Thrusting like I’m busting outta jail

Friction sliding speedy clutch

Only gear I know is way too much

I got a hammer and your coffin nails

Steer clear of my rooster tail

Volcanos spew hot lava

I’m smoking just like that

Competition so cutthroat

Melting down all the challengers

My full throttle’s got you beat

Now you know that I’m the goat

Propelled by burning fuel

Bursting blazing motor madness duel

Breakneck by nature racer blunt force

Through the dunes

Like a shockproof rocking horse

I’m throwing my rooster tail

I’m really going blowing like a gale

Kicking up a low down n’ dirty rusty dusty trail

Throwing my rooster tail

Thrusting like I’m busting outta jail

Friction sliding speedy clutch

Only gear I know is way too much

I got a hammer and your coffin nails

Steer clear of my rooster tail

Buried roots

But hearty faith

Above the rants and raves

To a new golden age

Distant trail

With twists and turns

Along the road confirms

How my hunting soul it stirs

I’m always searching

For Santa Fe

Any escaping from nowadays

The place coexists

With its former ways

Lifetimes lost

But the phantoms stay

Always searching for Santa Fe

Bolero song

Old Pueblo hymn

Land of enchantment

Past was fading dim

But upwards view

And memories rebuild

Authentic symbol of free will

Ancestral voices echo still

I’m always searching

For Santa Fe

Any escaping from nowadays

The place coexists

With its former ways

Lifetimes lost

But the phantoms stay

Always searching for Santa Fe

Rambling but ready

Watch me really go

Maybe not so steady

But it’s the only way I know

Now then I can’t change

Not a thing that I can do

Say when but I tell you what

One and one don’t always make two

Living life like a

Lone Star tumbleweed

All I ever wanted to be

Was a roadrunner

Somehow scraping by

Getting what I need

Only passing through

Uprooted and freed

Lone Star tumbleweed

Uprooted and freed

Lone Star tumbleweed

Tumbling tough Texan

Wind takes me where it will

Without direction

At least I ain’t standing still

No ties told you before

I’m old guard bad company

Bull’s eye when you said

I’m checked out always absentee

Living life like a

Lone Star tumbleweed

All I ever wanted to be

Was a roadrunner

Somehow scraping by

Getting what I need

Only passing through

Uprooted and freed

Lone Star tumbleweed

Uprooted and freed

Lone Star tumbleweed

On a saddle made of smoke

Sits the skull and bones rider 

Crooked straight from Hell

Outlaw insider

Behind his mask and cloak

Lies a world of darkness

Here to steal the night

See through he’s heartless

Nothing is there

Be warned beware

Comes a skeleton on horseback

Against crimson sunset’s pall

Dead on arrival

Ghostwriting on the wall

Watch the man from perdition fall

The vision is black sun

Just a skeleton

On horseback

He’s a wrangler feeding fear

Spreading melancholy

But we created him

Out of human folly

For some reason we revere

Our own grim destroyer

We battle with the beast

Fate that fallen warrior

Nothing is there

Be warned beware

Comes a skeleton on horseback

Against crimson sunset’s pall

Dead on arrival

Ghostwriting on the wall

Watch the man from perdition fall

The vision is black sun

Just a skeleton

On horseback

From Independence

Out of Missouri

Heading out west

Promised land by the sea

Might take better than a year

Home is nowhere even near

Just chasing the setting sun

Through snow and rain

Fierce terrain

Every wagon train

Onward and upward

Against the grain

Cross the plains

Every wagon train

Circling with the buzzard

Dream in vein wagon train

Dream in vein wagon train

Trail to transcendence

Mighty big country

Hope for the best

But no guarantee

Night makes ghosts start to appear

Future’s far and still unclear

Just chasing the setting sun

Through snow and rain

Fierce terrain

Every wagon train

Onward and upward

Against the grain

Cross the plains

Every wagon train

Circling with the buzzard

Dream in vein wagon train

Dream in vein wagon train

Hushed crickets’ wings

The rebel’s ballad

Devil’s horses serenade

Slow fade

New Orleans night high

When sundown falls

Swamp land of secrets

The liquid darkness creeps

Willow weeps

Chickadee far off cry

Calliope on Steamboat Natchez

Pounds out a haunting tune

Outside it’s January

Inside a dream of June

Light sweeps through

Suddenly lifting you

Black turns indigo blue

Moon on the bayou

Old Second line

The rhythm pulses

Funeral march low trumpet trill

From Storyville’s

Mahogany Hall

Wrought iron spikes

Deep sky French Quarter

The music stew it broods

Sets the mood

Feel the real above all

Calliope on Steamboat Natchez

Pounds out a haunting tune

Outside it’s January

Inside a dream of June

Light sweeps through

Suddenly lifting you

Black turns indigo blue

Moon on the bayou

In the great wide open

Spaces of the West

You’ll find freedom’s symbol

The California Condor’s nest

Birds of Jove you can’t rope in

Liberty won’t lay to rest

Beacon’s emblem to rekindle

Must have been born in a

Condor’s nest

Cliff cave in the mountains

Refuge from high winds

And in Giant Sequoia Redwood

Tree trunks numbers dwindling

Looking for protection

From the ravages of man

Hideaway from the haunted days

Straw bed built strand by strand

In the great wide open

Spaces of the West

You’ll find freedom’s symbol

The California Condor’s nest

Birds of Jove you can’t rope in

Liberty won’t lay to rest

Beacon’s emblem to rekindle

Must have been born in a

Condor’s nest

For eagles across this country

Honor is the creed

Outlasting is their legacy

For their survival they believe

Memory collecting

Through the vexing years

Choose the spots to untie the knots 

Go free and fly away in pairs

Sailor’s doom

Sweet alluring tomb

Swansong of the ages

From the river’s edge

Soothing wicked pledge

In man-made satin cages

They glide through water

I’m stuck on ground

Neptune’s daughters Celestial sound

Lagoon lit by lanterns

Paradise found

Hear the call of the Sirens

Trick velvet trap no going back

Call of the Sirens

Spellbinding sighs I’m hypnotized

Call of the Sirens

Rapture flows

Through the quiet rose

And the whirlpool starts spinning

Floating mermaids sway

Your soul you’ve signed away

The lost tunnel’s just beginning

They glide through water

I’m stuck on ground

Neptune’s daughters Celestial sound

Lagoon lit by lanterns

Paradise found

Hear the call of the Sirens

Trick velvet trap no going back

Call of the Sirens

Spellbinding sighs I’m hypnotized

Call of the Sirens

Hangman

Only you between the reaper

And where I stand

Who made you the gatekeeper

Gallows

Rope railroad ties and trestles

Every man knows

The conscience that he wrestles

Should I

Try to get up to that ridge

Or die at

Down at Owl Creek Bridge

Accused

Fugitive from justice

Never proved

Allegations made to crush us

By chance

Can’t you let me slip out

Snake dance

In your debt if there’s any doubt

Should I

Try to get up to that ridge

Or die at

Down at Owl Creek Bridge

Sun and wind

Pound the badlands again

Sagebrush scent

So bittersweet

Almost wonderful

Rocks to sand

Vista barren but grand

Greasewood shrinks

In deadly heat

So colorful

Blood red desert

Release me

From your stranglehold

Blood red desert

Beneath me

Passion savage and uncontrolled

Peaks from dunes

Clean bleaching what blooms

Where does that leave

Life on earth

Desolation vast

Rim round bed

I’m begging you I’ve bled

Now I’m looking

For my rebirth

Escaping a troubled past

Blood red desert

Release me

From your stranglehold

Blood red desert

Beneath me

Passion savage and uncontrolled

Salt of Cortez

In the Steinbeck tales

Stuff of legends

At Cabo Bay

Basks in sunshine

He soars and sails

Leads with the knife end

Making ocean spray

Silver swordfish leaping

From sea to sky

Putting on an exhibition

For me you personify

Pure joy golden boy

Fly silver swordfish fly

Deep in daylight

With rays and sharks down there

Ancient wisdom

Guides your fin

Breach the surface

Straight into sparkling air

Reach for the heavens

You might just get in

Silver swordfish leaping

From sea to sky

Putting on an exhibition

For me you personify

Pure joy golden boy

Fly silver swordfish fly

Amazon Kingfisher

Your fluttering wings fanning

Zacate Creek

Just soldier on

South Texas son some well wisher

Almost two hundred years since

Casa Ortiz

Those times are gone

Pages from my Laredo journal

The saga still hovers above the land

Ages overtake and that’s eternal

Got my Laredo journal in hand

Once the Republic

Of the Rio Grande

Got my Laredo journal in hand

Once the Republic

Of the Rio Grande

Fallen oak unspoken star

Your weakening state shared by

Strong and meek

Place remains unchanged

Spirit broke but not done by far

Escape to the shadows

Weathered mesquite

Hard bitten stark terrain

Pages from my Laredo journal

The saga still hovers above the land

Ages overtake and that’s eternal

Got my Laredo journal in hand

Once the Republic

Of the Rio Grande

Got my Laredo journal in hand

Once the Republic

Of the Rio Grande

Untamed past

From the crazy horse desert

Unforgiving landscape

Forgotten lone star child

Open range

Now been closing for decades

Second born son of gun

I was bred to be wild

I’m from a riled dying breed

Distant call like a tractor beam

I just wanna be

Breaking loose

Running free

Like the Mustangs across the stream

Mustangs across the stream

Natural state

Wish you would have left me

Mess with what I’m made of

What did you think I’d do

Broken fence

Wood slats hanging in the wind

Bucking is my ingrained way

Now I’m busting clean through

I’m from a riled dying breed

Distant call like a tractor beam

I just wanna be

Breaking loose

Running free

Like the Mustangs across the stream

Mustangs across the stream

Tumbling thunder I’m a third wheel

Gas gauge showing

Not much left no

Running empty it’s a done deal

Lost my I.D. to your

Little grand theft oh

I’m just driving

To the end of a dream

Road keeps rising you’re my mirage

Or so it seems

Beat soul reviving

Twilight silent symphony

Path unwinding staring into night

In hazy gray I can see

I’m just driving

To the end of a dream

Still I’m searching for my Raintree

Turning the burning

Into a glaze now

But where in the world would I be

If I didn’t go on

My motor getaways wow

I’m just driving

To the end of a dream

Road keeps rising you’re my mirage

Or so it seems

Beat soul reviving

Twilight silent symphony

Path unwinding staring into night

In hazy gray I can see

I’m just driving

To the end of a dream

Battle royal in the cypress swamp

Tupelo honey

You just came to stomp

Carolina I’m a native son

With a cousin destroyer

My tale is pure homespun

Golden nectar from the sour gum tree

Gulf Coast killer

Death by decree

Fierce invader of those mossy oaks

Force your way in

Press your own kinfolks

All the backstabs then left for dead

You do unto others

That’s just the tip of the arrowhead

The rock is gone I was leaning on

Now I’m right back where I was planted

Sunburned by life

Still I don’t take a moment for granted

Just a road warrior

Savanna man on a path well worn

Let me be the Bitternut Hickory

To your Southern Buckthorn

Through the years mostly times of drought

Still looking for a spot

Where a simple bud can sprout

Stick to myself all I can do

Cast a cold eye

Try to stumble through

Hope for the best by small degrees

Take bad seeds

Pray for early freeze

Summer’s ending still you’re on the march

Taking over

Under triumph’s arch

Didn’t want to leave this left unsaid

If I had my druthers

Wish we all could blossom cherry red

Survivor climbing higher

Southern Buckthorn

Outsider like a spider

Southern Buckthorn

Low rider in barbed wire

Southern Buckthorn

Outlier lit spitfire

Southern Buckthorn

Dear Georgia

Haystacks in Spring

Your sweet rakes of light

Wildflowers blossoming

Dear Georgia

I’m worshiping

Heaven’s presence

It’s a mystical thing

Atlanta

Know I’m on my way to you

Always loved it

When I passed through

Peachtree Road

With all your soaring trees

Can’t wait to feel

Your docile breeze

Dear Georgia

Haystacks in Spring

Your sweet rakes of light

Wildflowers blossoming

Dear Georgia

I’m worshiping

Heaven’s presence

It’s a mystical thing

Savannah

How I miss your Spanish moss

Open letter

To the Southern Cross

Pirate’s House

I swear you’re haunting me

But for your coastal town

Hospitality

Dear Georgia

Haystacks in Spring

Your sweet rakes of light

Wildflowers blossoming

Dear Georgia

I’m worshiping

Heaven’s presence

It’s a mystical thing

Samuel C.

Longhorn man

In and out with

Haley’s Comet

A Tramp Abroad

With his bluejay yarn

Toughest wit

Feisty prophet

Riverboat man

Yelling safe to pass

Eagle screaming

Banjos bluegrass

Dressed in white

When summer ends

Deadpan script

Comes alive again

Neighbors few

Travels far

The decades melt

Epic figure

To the point

No holding back

To this day

The truth will trigger

Riverboat man

Yelling safe to pass

Eagle screaming

Banjos bluegrass

Dressed in white

When summer ends

Deadpan script

Comes alive again

Letters from Earth

Back to the cave

What you know ain’t so

Heading backwards

Lost in crowds

Write so brave

Simpler time

Here’s the password

Appalachian dream ‘til

May of 1915

Shock to your steady stream

Describing grief unseen

Stolen moments of closeness

Father and son remoteness

Rufus spread your grace

On the mysteries of life

And sudden death

Aftermath’s birthplace

Pearls of wisdom

Paint a town with your wordplay

Knoxville U.S.A.

Lyricism unleashed

Speechless passion unbound

Poignant ache released

Insights clear and so profound

Finding depth of attachment

Build back fragment by fragment

Rufus spread your grace

On the mysteries of life

And sudden death

Aftermath’s birthplace

Pearls of wisdom

Paint a town with your wordplay

Knoxville U.S.A.

Proof is in the pain

A small boy of six

His dad’s dying breath

From your loss our gain

In Tennessee that night

James Agee’s blackest day

Knoxville U.S.A.

Hard knocks motorway

Knoxville U.S.A.

Hard knocks motorway

We were as one

Some days

Surface talks turning deep

Interstate 20 East

That Summer of

Lazy ways

Couple of tight jams but

Overall sense of peace

I haven’t forgotten

My rare bird

I’m here to say

It all replays

It was not all for naught

Rio Rancho remembered

Behind the wheel

Driving shifts

Shreveport just starting out

It’s Roswell or bust

The time we took

What a lift

In a car on a cloud that

Road trip trek you know what

I haven’t forgotten

My rare bird

I’m here to say

It all replays

It was not all for naught

Rio Rancho remembered

Deep into that darkness

Over South Atlantic shores

Supernatural atmosphere

It’s the rebel riding fire

Burned into my soul’s core

Omen bleak mystique austere

Between the material world

And the spirits’ prophecy

Angels in Heaven above

Demons down under the sea

Comes the raven

Hoodwink or haven

He’s wiser than we

The Raven

Messenger

Blackbird of persuasionSaboteur

The Raven

Both trickster and creator

His only answer is nevermore

Badge of honor to confuse

We’re an island of lost souls

And now he’s at our chamber door

chill that kills trust that’s misused

Astonishing or so you say

He’s contradictory

Transit across the skies by night

Half-truth half heresy

Comes the raven

Brash and brazen

That’s no saint you see

The Raven

Messenger

Blackbird of persuasion

Saboteur

The Raven

You brought the Sun

And Moon and Stars

Made us think that

They were ours

Somehow got us

To believe

In these mirages and illusions

All designed to deceive

I never knew you

You didn’t get to know me

Ghostly guru

Might have got on famously

I’ve had the bluest of blues

But your music like magic

Made it all the way through

With a kiss what a blessing for this

Livinia in absentia

I’m telling my Sun Belt stories

To whoever’s listening

Western to Southern territories

I’m a man on a mission

Sun Belt Stories

Some shame some glory

Sun Belt Stories

Tales of virtue and sin

I’m telling my Sun Belt stories
again

Silent teacher

I wish you were still here

Part-time preacher

Your message won’t disappear

Like hands across centuries

Reading your diaries

Paints portraits of you

Hidden meanings you whisper to me

Livinia in absentia

I’m telling my Sun Belt stories

To whoever’s listening

Western to Southern territories

I’m a man on a mission

Sun Belt Stories

Some shame some glory

Sun Belt Stories

Tales of virtue and sin

I’m telling my Sun Belt stories
again

Sun Belt Stories

Allegories

Sun Belt Stories

Of right now and back then

I’m telling my Sun Belt stories

My friends

Lost in America

Looking to be found

Still searching

For my sound

See me I’m there with ya

U.S. by Greyhound

Communicating

Voices drowned

In my journals

Reunited

Oh South Star

Shine on me

Springs eternal

Unrequited

Human nature

Always the same you see

Dig for roots

My boots been on the ground alright

I’m Bogalusa Bound tonight

Bogalusa Bound

Longleaf pines years running

Bogalusa Bound

Bayou Railroad years running down

Bogalusa Bound

Dark water Dixie I’m coming

Bogalusa Bound

Mockingbird hear me I’m coming round

Banging my head again

Caught up with closed minds

Tough descendants

Takes all kinds

Reeling can’t comprehend

The resistance to redefine

Guess we’re all alike

Just not aligned

It’s my private revolution

I see the change

Needs to be in me

My quiet resolution

I’ll take full

Responsibility

Revive it no retribution

Survive it seek new solutions

It’s all part of my private revolution

And it has begun

Can’t look outside

For answers or blame

Nobody to guide

About the rules of the game

I’m stuck inside

Myself common plight

These walls made of pride

Me and my own internal fight

It’s my private revolution

I see the change

Needs to be in me

My quiet resolution

I’ll take full

Responsibility

Revive it no retribution

Survive it seek new solutions

It’s all part of my private revolution
And it has begun

Keep my thoughts steady

While I ask and I ask

This asphalt cowboy’s ready

I swear I’m up to the task

Time sure is flying

It’s in all of our faces

Ruins not even trying

All our deep secret places

No regrets

Well maybe just a few

But I’ll never forget

My life and times with you

Tomorrow meant a new road

Exploring we did our share

Every rambling episode

Home was anywhere

Grounded some and that’s alright

Lead on

Every dawn

Has to end in night

We saw the sights

It’s all finite

Nature’s sweet delights

When my traveling days are over

Not sure I’d even mind

Where there’s two like me and you

No one’s a loner

Treasure’s what you find

Each path of discovery

Grows cold or goes sideways

At least while we reigned we blazed

Getting close to a faraway gaze

Thinking back on my traveling days

Traveling days

Wanderlust

The need to change the place

That was surely us

But the swift don’t win the race

Remembering the small things

That’s what it’s all about

Even if our feet had wings

Time is running out

Still there’s hope for the darkest night

I contend

Around the bend

Now we just might

Hit the highest heights

Spirits soar in flight

To the Southern Lights

When my traveling days are over

Not sure I’d even mind

Where there’s two like me and you

No one’s a loner

Treasure’s what you find

Each path of discovery

Grows cold or goes sideways

At least while we reigned we blazed

Getting close to a faraway gaze

Thinking back on my traveling days

Traveling days

I’m walking away from my traveling days

Wise sage

I’m just a ghost rider

From a vanishing age

Lone raccoon

What’s the secret to survival

I’m staging a revival here

Times change

You’re still hiding like a bandit

In a century that’s strange

Out of tune

Message going viral

From a curving spiral frontier

Be home soon

Lotsa blind alleys

Long way from Cali

Still I’m ready to reconcile even rally

Mississippi Valley return

Mississippi Valley on my way Sally

Big yearn

Mississippi Valley my final finale

Return

Clouds pass

Whichever way the wind blows

Still can’t see through smoked glass

From saloons

Getting repetitious

Circle sure is vicious I swear

Live fast

No matter how I run it comes

From out of the past

Dead balloons

Wheel without the motion

But always the notion is there

Be home soon

Lotsa blind alleys

Long way from Cali

Still I’m ready to reconcile even rally

Mississippi Valley return

Mississippi Valley on my way Sally

Big yearn

Mississippi Valley my final finale

Return

Mississippi Valley

I see now I’m not walking alone

Mississippi Valley

Just a wayward one coming home

Bordertown
Heading down
Next to Mexico
Windy gust
Eating dust
Highway 118

Far west side
Devil’s ride
A new fandango
A few exits past
McMurtry’s last
Abandoned scene

Destination Terlingua
Fascination atlas obscura
Straight ahead keep chasing the thread

Dragonfly in my Texas tequila
Moody skies over Lost Gringo RV
Let’s drive by the old Starlight Theater
Where adobe walls
Meet liquid neon dreams
Primitive
Way to live
Blasting radio
Empty place
On the face
If you don’t see ghosts

Let them be
Humanity
Learn to let it go
Fade away
All someday
Read the worn sign posts

Destination Terlingua
Fascination atlas obscura
Straight ahead keep chasing the thread

Dragonfly in my Texas tequila
Moody skies over Lost Gringo RV
Let’s drive by the old Starlight Theater
Where adobe walls
Meet liquid neon dreams

n winter’s coldest months
After all the leaves have fallen
Clearer views come streaking through
To the chilled stark valley below

Spring forward and summits lift
Flat ridge top on rolling hillside Farming town East Tennessee
All colors where wildflowers grow

Big House mighty mountain
You symbolize
The shining rise to freedom
Big House mighty mountain
Before your eyes
Virginia skies
Big House

Summer breeze beats the heat
World view turns panoramic
Glass vista see the steep ascent
Elevating up to better days

In fall when trees catch fire
Orange autumn displaying
Lighting the brightest highest point
In the most hypnotizing ways

Big House mighty mountain
You mesmerize
New liberty what a feeling
Big House mighty mountain
Majestic size
Yet you harmonize
Big House

Big House mighty mountain
You symbolize
The shining rise to freedom
Big House mighty mountain
Before your eyes
Virginia skies
Big House

Lost age of innocence
Now harsh reality
The span from ignorance
To knowing all that we
Have learned

We see we all have
Our limitations
No less than
Birth and death
Futility
Fragility

Signal that time is leaving
Decay marching slowing motion
Faded glory then dust
Coming to understand rust

Might this be the metaphor
For man’s search for dignity
The wisdom we’ll need for sure
These ruins just can’t be
Overturned

We struggle and meet it
With perseverance
Stubborn and
Spiritual
The soul survives
Our life’s demise

Icon of long neglecting
So much sea salt in the ocean
Robust iron encrust
Destiny so much like rust

Buckeye Butterfly

Hey Buckeye butterfly
Cowgirl stunner
With the target shaped eyes
Your figure eight
Drop-dead beautiful bait
I couldn’t catch you if I tried

Hey Buckeye butterfly
In your splendor
Let the looker glide by
An open field
The only place you might yield
But we’re both stuck here roadside
Buckeye butterfly

Fishnets doing the trick
Long eyelashes brunette
Yeah you got the old ice pick
Mantrap giving cold sweats

I’m not getting sentimental
But I kinda thought we were friends
Now you found your next conquest prize
And we’re strangers once again

Hey Buckeye butterfly
Cowgirl stunner
With the target shaped eyes
Your figure eight
Drop-dead beautiful bait
I couldn’t catch you if I tried

Hey Buckeye butterfly
In your splendor
Let the looker glide by
An open field
The only place you might yield
But we’re both stuck here roadside
Buckeye butterfly

Lipstick shiny and wet
But Rosie Riveter type
1940s hair net
When you flutter your wings sideswipe

Meeting you was accidental
But to me it felt like fate
I saw your magnificence
You sure can captivate

Tune in
Gonna pay attention now
While I can
Look alive
Porch bench or bee hive
The universe I will see
Carolinas calling to me

From rock bottom
Outta Nashville
Tennessee
But it’s Autumn
In Asheville
Turning leaves

Blue Ridge
Green to orange red then brown
Peace at hand
Warming winds
And so it begins
I’m suddenly aware
Fall colors everywhere

From rock bottom
Outta Nashville
Tennessee
But it’s Autumn
In Asheville
Turning leaves

What the poet sees
Transformation in the trees
Watch Spring erase what Winter weaves
The seasons are the thieves
Tomorrow’s ash hill
Turning leaves

Ever wonder
What a wanderer believes
Just in distant thunder
In trust and turning leaves

Sky Ranch Motel

Once again
The frost is splintering
Muted snowbird tones
Skin as dry as bone

Time of year
Last travelers lingering
Hey old school screen door
Guess we’re dinosaurs

Luna moth against the light
Dayglo wings bright green at night
Rebel citadel roadhouse farewell

Sky Ranch Motel
Truckstop abandoned
Now where do gypsy drifters dwell

Tell me why you rose and fell
I’m not understanding
Your dark deserted shell

I’m just another nomad
You were my shady dell
Sky Ranch Motel

Purple cast
Your sign was flickering
A bit dog eared
But all were welcomed here

Blanket me
This town is withering
Dwindling flames
Won’t ever be the same

Luna moth against the light
Dayglo wings bright green at night
Rebel citadel roadhouse farewell

Sky Ranch Motel
Truckstop abandoned
Now where do gypsy drifters dwell

Tell me why you rose and fell
I’m not understanding
Your dark deserted shell

I’m just another nomad
You were my shady dell
Sky Ranch Motel

I’m cruising slack into Memphis
Yesterday made my way
Returning son low gear

Weaving around the edge of the river
Can’t believe it’s been years

Wild rock dove homing pidgeon
By feel and pilot’s wheel
Gonna get to you

Now I’m knocking down the distance
Cultures keep crashing through

I can see the signs ahead
Memories I could sketch
I’m on the homestretch

Rolling down the road
Bringing us all back together
Black Hawk bridge
Louisiana ridge
Rolling down the road
We are all birds of a feather
Spanish moss
On a field church cross
Ballad of a searcher
This restless one’s code
Rolling down the road
Na na na na na
Rolling down the road

My Baton Rouge red stick’s waiting
Rusty truck pulling up
I’m already there

Halcyon days getting better
This trip’s like an answered prayer

Grand Prairie calm is tomorrow
Ride the wind once again
To our days of youth

Oxbow lake alligator
I’ve made peace with your sawtooth

Can’t you see good times ahead
Reunite the wrecking crew
Can’t wait for that homebrew

Finding Key Largo
Once homeland of the Seminoles
Southerly open shutters to the sea
Sympathy Rock Harbor calling to me

Had to go
Pilgrimage odyssey
Emerald Coast
County of Monroe

Florida Sun King
Watching the swaying of the palms
Lining the sand
Myth and man now you’re here near me

Florida Sun King
Knowing by feel your heart of bronze
I think I understand
My elder I’m seeing things clearly

Nearby Everglades
Sawgrass prairies of green on blue
Coast bound across Blackwater Sound
Way down where family tree fronds are found

Amber glow
All of your wit and wisdom
Timeless
Balance you bestow

Florida Sun King
Watching the swaying of the palms
Lining the sand
Myth and man you’re here now near me

Florida Sun King
Knowing by heart your face of bronze
I think I understand
My elder I’m seeing things clearly

Florida Sun King
Your life is my wellspring
Florida Sun King
Thank you for everything

It’s days like these
The ones that bring you to your knees
I’m holding only handlebars
Desire is just some old creaky streetcar

I can’t bring a bit of it back
Too much to own up to and unpack

I wanna be deep
In dreamless sleep
Suspended state
Reality can wait
No epic size sweep
Just counting sheep
My upended world
Here no heartaches hurled
Just gliding
Nobody guiding
Riding the delta waves
Wash over me ocean graves
Immerse me in watery caves
Have mercy my delta waves

Some nights I can rest
But forget about you that’s the hardest test
Imagination’s the place
Trail of love that leaves no trace

I can sing about the fates and breaks
My narrow escape from being wide awake

I wanna be deep
In dreamless sleep
Suspended state
Reality can wait
No epic size sweep
Just counting sheep
My upended world
Here no heartaches hurled
Just gliding
Nobody guiding
Riding the delta waves
Wash over me ocean graves
Immerse me in watery caves
Have mercy my delta waves

Elysian fields of green
Always Sunkist
Winding lines of trumpet vines
Picture this

Orange Crush pink leaves
Reckless abandon
Bikini girls another world
Far from my Radio Flyer wagon

River raft float on
Strawberry Canyon
Night blooming jasmine wind
All I imagine
Strawberry Canyon

Summer skin slink by
Stored in memory
Treasure box for precious rocks
Coral trees

Fanta Grape blue moon
Coppertone like satin
Found my way in those days
To the lady in white nurse’s cabin

River raft float on
Strawberry Canyon
Night blooming jasmine wind
All I imagine
Strawberry Canyon

Fighting through the streets
Driving straight outta here
Writing in my journal
Set to chords and beats

Whipping around the bend
Taking it day by day
Tipping the scales towards justice
With my sword it’s penned

Born in Motor City
So many turns since then
Jot some bits of it down
What a funhouse ride it’s been
Some Las Vegas sinning
Vancouver and I’m stoked
Get me back to Lotusland
I’m gonna go for broke
You gotta let me light it up
The Big Smoke

Taking the corners hard
Revving engine roaring
Shaking like a speedway
Won’t catch me off guard

Seeing through the glass
Escaping the picture frame
Being present resurrection
Checkered flag I’ll pass

Born in Motor City
So many turns since then
Jot some bits of it down
What a funhouse ride it’s been
Some Las Vegas sinning
Vancouver and I’m stoked
Get me back to Lotusland
I’m gonna go for broke
You gotta let me it light up
The Big Smoke

I’m a desperado
Stumbling and parched
Stung again by the scorpion
With a venom kiss

Waiting for a new moon
Barely made it through March
You’re my savior champion
Against the rattlesnake hiss

You came along like a cooing dove
Cloudburst flash flood labor of love

Out of the sand
Comes my desert flower
Hardly planned
How can you thrive here

In a hostile land
Born of summer shower
You blossom every year
Then flat like that you disappear
My desert flower

Imagine an oasis
When the dry wind blows
Red rock remember then
Already morning rays

Melting under the harsh sun
Such mighty highs and lows
Got my angel guardian
For these hell-on-earth days

In such an arid atmosphere
You bring life to my death valley here

Out of the sand
Comes my desert flower
Hardly planned
How can you thrive here

In a hostile land
From a summer shower
You blossom every year
Then flat like that you disappear
My desert flower

Once again
In the middle of madness
I push my pen
Try to justify some downfall

Time to walk away
From this asphalt jungle
Slow death if I delay
I gotta scale this prison wall

There’s only one thing
Gonna make it alright inside
Grab the keys go get the car
Kill reminiscence while I ride

As long as it’s all
In the rearview mirror
I can breathe easy
Start to see things clearer
Shotgun can’t outrun
Ain’t getting any nearer
To blasting the past
Still seeing that view of you
In the rearview mirror

Get ahead
It’s a riddle can’t figure
So well tread
I wanna take things in reverse

Now I’m heading out
Try to find a lane open
Change up the route
Wave of trouble’s turning worse

Only one sound
A purring engine revving red hot
I’m in the saddle settled in
Like a Marshall hundred watt

As long as it’s all
In the rearview mirror
I can breathe easy
Start to see things clearer
Shotgun can’t outrun
Ain’t getting any nearer
To blasting the past
Still seeing that view of you

I can’t manage to navigate
Where I’m going there ain’t no map
Passing up all the traffic
And I just might close that gap

Race through this life
Edge of the big knife
Saving it all up
For nothing in the end

Take a deep breath
You ain’t cheating death
At the pearly gates
All those nickels you can’t spend

Confessions of a Lounge Lizard
Spare me those peak performance bros
I’m just some old vine
Wine wizard
Competition blows
Completely missing the point
The path you chose

Bison buffalo
Emerson Thoreau
All things exist
In a ceaseless flow of change

American thought
Hard won and fought
It’s all a frame of mind
Roam on home on the range

Confessions of a Lounge Lizard
We all fall down like dominoes
Can’t blunder through
Here comes a blizzard
The rivalry is closed
There’s just the Great Plains
We’re all plain John Does

Confessions of a Lounge Lizard
We rise by lifting each other brothers
Sock it away in your
Chicken gizzard
When empathy goes
Humanity’s up the creek
You can bet Heaven knows

Old Polaroid
I found stashed
Small numbers sixty six
Colors
So faded over time now

Straight from the void
A picture speaks
Words all in shades of bricks
Wonders
Eternal so sublime somehow

Bygone are the days and lost ways
Doesn’t change
What the truth is

Live on totem poles holding souls
Spirits hover like hawks
On the road
To Las Cruces

Soon Southern Cross
Down to Taos then
Through to Santa Fe
John Ford
Movie in my mind’s eye

Scratch off the gloss
See roots they go
Back quite a ways
And forwards
Enchantment written in the sky

Bygone are the days and lost ways
Doesn’t change
What the truth is

Live on totem poles holding souls
Spirits hover like hawks
On the road
To Las Cruces

On the road to Las Cruces
Find what your truth is

Ask me if I’m nostalgic
I’ll say always everyday
Living in the past keeping classic
Back then was the place to stay

Timeless is forever
Always the better plan
No trying denying
I’m a twentieth century man

Kinda everything was better before
Can’t stand this millennium anymore

Yesteryear versus today
Which is best no contest
You say it’s all OK hey hey
But I’m still not satisfied
Wanna watch me up and come alive?
You got a time machine
Let’s ride let her rip
Gimme Sunset Strip 1955

Say Crackerjack black Cadillac
Take me back
My Coupe DeVille it’s been all down hill
Coupe DeVille

You here’s the overview
Everything is over-cranked
And stuck in overdrive too
We’re all drawing a great big blank

Culture takes a nosedive
Been sliding since I was a kid
What’s right now and what’s the latest
Doesn’t mean a thing never did

Something’s lost and that’s for sure
Flailing and ailing so what’s the cure

Atmosphere speaking to me
Vintage vibe killer tribe
Who do you want to be
Searching for the bona fide
Wanna watch me just thrift and thrive?
You got a time machine
Can’t abide one way trip
Pretty much any zip 1955

Say Crackerjack black Cadillac
Take me back
Coupe DeVille been all down hill
Coupe DeVille
Sound feel or look guitar car or book
Colors getting worse and worse
Not a day goes by I don’t curse the curse
Throw it in reverse

Always looking to belong
To the world not so withdrawn
Like in the land of Oz

I had to leave to find it out
Nowhere better no doubt
Golden one you give me pause

You got me in a dream state
Who knew a place
Could be a real soul mate
By day your sunshine radiates
By night I’m deep in meditation
On your moon beam
You caught me you’re my supreme
Dream state
You’re just a dream state

Couldn’t wait for my turn
Sometimes failing’s the way to learn
That’s what the poets say

Winding path from Motown
Spent some years thinking upside down
Eldorado Nation hideaway

You got me in a dream state
Who knew a place
Could be a real soul mate
By day your sunshine radiates
By night I’m deep in meditation
On your moon beam
You caught me you’re my supreme
Dream state
You’re just a dream state
Dreamscape
Dream state

Dusk hits the Saguaros
Fade back ‘til tomorrow
Farewell to today
Old West Highway
Still haunted phantom miners

Goldfield Ghost Town sign
Superstition’s outline
The forks set the stage
The road is my page
Recollections designer

Reaching into night sky
Out to the stars
Celestial wish wide screen
Dreaming of the twilight high sheen
Apache Junction Sunset serene
Apache Junction Sunset sacred scene

All galaxies closer
Nature as composer
Specters hiding the gems
A new chapter begins
Ancient ages out in the open

Stories in sandstone
In darkness alone
Then a scout sees ahead
Desert secrets not dead
Cliffs are soaring myth unspoken

The tempest is forming
Turbulence warning
Better take cover
Not a minute to waste

A rainy day dawning
You’re still all I’m wanting
Sweetness sometimes poison
Voodoo through black lace

Wicked queen magic powers
Fortune’s arrows you sling
Some upside down hours
All the same I feel like a king
Lightning flashing
Quite a strike your jolt
You loving me
Like a thunderbolt
Yeah yeah
Thousand volt
Thunderbolt

Rumble clap in the distance
Here it comes no resistance
Your blitz is too much for me
You hit like a big barbell

Clock keeps on running
Your silhouette’s stunning
Killing off or saving grace
Can be kinda hard to tell

I tried to go on
The straight and narrow
But now I’m slipping
Into flip flops
Second hand sombrero

Dead lucky stiff
And I never forget it
The havoc only hurts
When you let it in
Let me begin by saying

I’m a Baja Bohemian
Living in the California Caribbean
Chasing perfection oblivion
Baja Bohemian

Skating and surfing
Sidewalks and sand dunes
Melodies locked inside me
Making it up
Rock roots beach tunes

Too late to change
I’m sticking to it
Get through life with style
Just ask how I do it now
As the palms are swaying

Somewhere in the void
Between mercy and serenity
From some small yarn
Falling down barn
Open land with dying grass
And twisted trees

Now there’s a phantom in its place
Not even half of what it used it be
But I ain’t worried
No big hurry
Still got my monochrome memories

It was in the last picture show
I could see something
Like I like it
Going nice and slow oh oh
Even now as I try to write
You radiate the heat of night
That silver screen glow
The lost world I know
The last picture show
Sometimes I drift off
Your shadows flicker
Blurry image instant chain
Glamour’s dwindling
Time keeps swindling
But across the decades
You come like summer rain

Childhood in black and white
But don’t even ask me
Just what I believe
Different drummer
Endless summer
Hiding out from myself
And my company

It was in the last picture show
I‘m still defiant
I want the world
Turning sweet and low oh oh
Up until my time is through
I’ll be thinking of and seeing you
Dark movie house from long ago
Breath of fresh air good inflow
The last picture show

Forage in the morning
Plus prowling evenings too
Relentless savage they all say
Except when I’m with you

Dangerous even ruthless
Foes call me fiery
Full of furious uproar
Fight the fight energy

I’m territorial
Hermit like a bear
Resting in cover by day hey hey

Time immemorial
Spent in my den
Dormant state it’s my way hey hey

All alone and in my zone
Huckleberry turned sour cherry
I’m solitary

Courage and conviction
Sticking to my word you’ll see
Lie to me just start running
I’m gonna chase that tail up a tree

Don’t mind going solo
If you’re saying that you can’t hang
But I’m gonna bet you circle back
A returning boomerang

Our old turnstile
Hardly worthwhile
On the high wire
Toying with desire
Then the big crisscross
Almost everything lost and still

A passion replay
The power to stay
Rests within you
Decide what you will do
Rolling stone or moss
What does it all cost cheap thrills

Round and round in circles then
Through this revolving door

We did that dance for sure
Remember when
Would never do it to
Each other again
Not anymore

The new frontier
Have it all here
We can’t advance now
If we’re praying for the chance
The eye for an eye
Always every time try for even score

Let’s stop and think
We’re at the brink
The edge that pulls us
Running out of trust
The rule applies
Trouble magnifies just like before

Perfect day for a rolling raceway
Wishing I was buzzing
My way round the track
But it’s only me in my ’63
Still you can’t catch
Mercury in jet black

Hotfoot ferocity
Driving high velocity

Shooting for the speed of sound
Pedal to the metal I’m one Hellhound
Blistering I’m victory bound
Faster faster
That’s my creed
Living for the sound of speed
Speed of sound Speed of sound

Hard machine like popping amphetamines
Turning and curving
With muscle car force
Accelerating with my double V8
Power sheer as I steer
My ride through the course

Constant animosity
Burning up viscosity

Shooting for the speed of sound
Pedal to the metal I’m one Hellhound
Blistering I’m victory bound
Faster faster
That’s my creed
Living for the sound of speed
Speed of sound Speed of sound

Set the pace it’s a lifelong car chase
Going for the record
Never second that’s me
Working my way up
Dreaming of a trophy cup
But this ain’t nothing like
The Long Beach Grand Prix

No crowd at capacity
Just my endless tenacity

What are you doing here
Didn’t know you were anywhere near
You came to make violent waves
Put some locals in their watery graves

Crashing down on those unlucky laggers
Thrash around stab with your daggers

Hammerhead
With wings at your temples
All you use them for is cold bloodshed
Hammerhead
Stingray stunned spinning trembles
Pin him to his ocean floor deathbed
For this you’re purebred
The spreading of dread
Tear it all to shreds
Killing machine
Quick and clean
Hammerhead

Look at you sowing fear
Creeping along grind is your gear
You lust for more and more prey
Might just eat your young one grim day

By surprise you hunt for the tumble
Capitalize dark shark rumble

Late afternoon
In the valley of the rocks
Vivid tones and raven’s caw

Open monument
My thorny sunset rose
Panorama feel the awe

Four corners the land uncaged
Just a few hundred miles to go
Three sisters hardly aged
You’re all allure
Genuine and pure
Home to New Mexico

Wide vista now
Nation of the Navajo
Tree sparrow fly away

Vastness all around
Driving my trusty Jeep
Tires in the deep red clay

Four corners the land uncaged
Just a few hundred miles to go
Three sisters hardly aged
You’re all allure
Genuine and pure
Home to New Mexico

Starting from Yosemite
Gonna give myself the time
Arizona then Colorado
Running through my mind
But there’s a place I can’t let go
I follow the amber arrow
Home to New Mexico

These hallowed halls
Keep descending
Heavy walls closing in conspiracy
Havoc reeks never-ending
No remorse change the course
So here it comes

Their shallow graves
Doom impending
Satan’s slaves bells toll what will be
Now it’s too late for amending
Down the road will explode
With thunder drums

Well welcome
To the land of the black swans
Their bedlam for their evil these icons
In darkness looms the prince
Now they’re just his pawns
Can’t take back the trade
The deal with the devil
The bed they made
Land of the black swans

Up in smoke
Hell ascending
Fire stoked biding time bitterly
Gate keeper’s cruel so mind-bending
Fell in the trap then lost the map
Whirlpool too strong

Sentence passed
No suspending
Shadows vast too blind to see
Voodoo hex underworld sending
Nerves of steel but no appeal
Go where you belong

Took a long time
To get to this place
Talking legendary
Blazing the trail with
Equal parts grit and grace

No destiny
From our point of view
Still we’re temporary
Future’s unknown
Everlasting Eden untrue

Just better to stay
Party of two no one betrayed

It’s forever for now
If it happens you need me
I’ll try to be there
Forever for now
I know you read me
Be open beware
Our only prayer
Live by our unspoken vow
Forever for now

Far from the scene
Our own life freestyle
Maybe visionary
Magic is made
Forget the rank and file

More soldiers down
From chasing the dream
Tale is cautionary
The rules won’t hold us
Convention too extreme

Together this way
Steering clear of the old clichés

Moving from dark to light
Low down to heaven
Azure blue filtered through
California sky

Difference is day and night
Our lucky seven
We found a new avenue
Here to pacify

All along the bay
Our shoreline drives
Feel the ocean spray
Entire time we see
Taking heart’s the thing to do
Watch the waves break strong
Cruising along
Pacific Coast Highway

Firebirds lost in flames
Reached the outer limit
Take a ride deep look inside
Nirvana nearby

Wandering no real aims
The surf you skim it
Try to glide rising tide
Fall down or fly

Time and time again
I say I see right through you
Uphill climb you say when
I tell you I’m no fool
Going through this groundhog day
You always saying to me
Stay hound dog stay
Throw me a bone or leave me alone
Girl just go go go
Until tomorrow anyway

Stray cat go back where you been
I’m still searching for that zen within
Ascend transcend
Zen within

Throw your bombs
I’ll find peace and calm
You can scratch
But I quit crawling
Hiss and howl
You won’t hear me growl
Go on and bite but
I’m done brawling

In plain sight your tiger stripes
I’m staying out of that lion’s den

On and on it goes
No way that we can keep up
Almost gone in the throes
Don’t waste those moves on me
Been down that back alley before
Playing hide and seek
No thanks no encore
All on your terms only confirms
I say no no no
Here comes comeuppance any day

Stray cat go back where you been
I’m still searching for that zen within
Ascend transcend
Zen within

Had nine lives
Teeth like carving knives
Met your match
And so you tantrum
Body and soul
I’m just trying to stay whole
My mantra
Now an anthem

You smile I see panther’s teeth
Cagey cougar in her playpen

Hip shot shark
Handcuff artist
I’m skunked I’m marked
From your hustling

You’re just a jewel
With a little cruelty
Playing jelly roll pool
Girl you’re all back spin

A swing of the pendulum
And all of a sudden
Vixen with the one master key

Hellcat quit I’m overcome
When flames start to flood in
This daredevil’s final plea

Like a sky rocket in the corner pocket
You got me baby doll
Right behind the 8 ball
Hot as a smokestack
A pin up throwback that’s all
And I’m up against your stonewall
Catcall
8 ball

I’d say it’s a shame
But I ain’t blaming
I’ve seen your game
All the tricks you got

You rack ‘em up real cute
You’re my tomboy beauty
The way you shoot
I’m Johnny on the spot

Thought I was adventuresome
But a tornado’s coming
You just twist and I’m hypnotized

Eat me alive like you’re chewing gum
I better start running
Quite a punch from one so pint sized

Lost in a dream
On a mountain top
Looking down at the clouds
Then the haze
Made a misty maze
Each sound was
Echoing so loud

Wide awake now things are brutal
A buck shot of reality
Shocked and rocked I know it’s futile
I’m stung and you’re the killer bee

La La La
I don’t know a thing
You’d think I’d learn my lesson
La La La
The misery love brings
Just like some Smith and Wesson
Oh well never can tell
Who’s gets the good luck
You’re at the wheel and I’m stuck under
Your pickup truck
This time you’re the hunter
And I’m just a dead duck

Let off steam
Drink to make it all stop
Liquid fire fills my mind
But it never pays
Just a blinding blaze
Hide and seek
Déjà vu same every time

Light of day and the gap is glaring
Your double barrel pointed right at me
My fantasy keeps tearing
I’m sunk and you’re the stormy sea

Pretty on the outside
But it don’t run deep
Try to scratch the surface
Nothing underneath

I see the diamonds
Just no heart of gold
You might be hot
But you’re still dry ice cold

You think I’m helpless
Under your spell
You’re just some reckless
Good looking beach bombshell

Hey Malibu princess
Can hate the attitude but still dig the view
Of your mean queen’s necklace
Can’t lay off what can I do
Believe me I know you’ll leave me
Breathless

Fully superficial
Every smile is fake
No denying that you’re slinky
Like a poison snake

Go and blow an air kiss
Count me out not me
You’re so full of it
Total apathy

Seen some dark days this house
Once was a haven
It’s pretty plain black and white
You’re the fugitive kind

Animal trapped claws out
Afraid you’ll cave in
Now we’re both undercut
It’s all intertwined

Wild one walk away
Just turn your back and leave it all behind
Setting sun another day
Your freedom’s won and now it’s time
Come with me across this county line

County Line
Strangling you like a creeping vine
County Line
Tangling rose it’s just another sign
County Line
Wrangling with the Ventura county line
County Line

No taming you for long
Everlasting loner
But the lore of these hills
Grapes of wrath hold you back

Native to you to flee
I ain’t your owner
I’m on your side can’t you see
The façade start to crack

Wild one walk away
Kill the ghosts for good let the myth unwind
No dream to chase or hell to pay
Forgotten place ain’t no goldmine
Come with me across this county line

Camouflage keep me secret
Almost invisible
Interior life I lead
Me and myself

Protecting the private sanctum
All that’s my inner world
Fly on the wall I’d climb
Up on the shelf

Smooth slayer
Started losing scales
More layers
Slithering closing in on your zig zag trail

Disguised from inside my snakeskin
Looking so tough but wears thin
Sliding
Hiding
Inside my snakeskin

Strike first seems like it’s built-in
Shedding how hard it’s all been
Wriggling around
Slipping out
Of my old snakeskin

New barrage daily sequel
Can’t say desirable
Inferior thing most times
I just won’t miss

Reflecting with iridescence
Trying to lay as low
Keep crawling along in waves
Over this abyss

Sidewinder
With an iron grip
Pathfinder
Hothead with a tail like a cracking whip

Went all around most every city
Sifting through the stories
Hailed the common ground
Watched unlikely heroes

But town to town show no pity
Drifting territories
Like a witness see it all go down
Next day start back at zero

So difficult to communicate
Sentences impossible to formulate
Hard to put in words
Something as natural as the
Songs of the birds

Nothing more to say for now
Guess I had to get it off my chest
It’s all just me scrawling thoughts
In my notebooks from the west

Documenting dive bar
To mountain crest
I do my level best
In my notebooks from the west

Trace the troubled times we live in
Chronicle the voiceless
Deep down we’re all scarred
Without the past no future

Rise above you can’t give in
See pathways through the pointless
Foreign land my own backyard
Cleve the fact from rumor

So critical to investigate
Halls of history reverberate
With letters pictures paint
The elements our guardian saint

Gotta make sense of it all
Can’t keep me from my quest
It’s all just me sorting out
My notebooks from the west

Celebrating small star
To Eagle’s nest
Nothing close to the vest
In my notebooks from the west

All inscribed from inside for my tribe
In my notebooks from the west
Set to rhyme long hard climb lost in time
In my notebooks from the west

Love always
Starts with the best
Of intentions don’t you know
How it holds up is the test
No predictions now where it goes

Paved in gold with a catch
The silver moon
Look for the bright side
The patch of blue
We’re still sailing to
The blacksmith’s side of
The silver moon

Love often
Ends with the worst
Accusations seen it so
The last thing we need coming first
No confessions while we’re in the throes

Day breaks but sun fades
Time lies
In between railroad ties

Love takes self-mades
Tons of tries
Don’t let it die too soon

Let’s make it 10,000 midnights
It ain’t near enough
Let’s keep following light
Through all the shadows
10,000 midnights
Might be flying blind
But getting it right
Is all that matters now
10,000 midnights

Just what makes our cutting blades
And steel mill skies
Failing to realize

That heartaches are just new shades
We’re heaving sighs but still
Getting wise to things

Let’s make it 10,000 midnights
It don’t sound like much
Let’s keep rising up
Minds in the meadows
10,000 midnights
What we’re looking for
Is made not found
It’s all that we can do
10,000 midnights

Let’s make it 10,000 midnights
Girl that ain’t no bluff
Let’s keep riding high
Above the valleys
10,000 midnights
Can’t be counting on
But ain’t it always
Worth another try
10,000 midnights

I’m not sure I’ve gained the wisdom
Even though I’ve been feeling the strain
These ruins are still my kingdom
Still trying to break the locks and chains

Was it all worth it
Can you say it’s fair
Can’t help or hurt it
I don’t have a prayer anymore

It’s Providence
Against lady luck
There ain’t no defense
It’s about giving in
Without giving up
That’s the way to win
Guess it’s all in the cards
Gotta stop working so hard
To make sense of Providence
No making sense of Providence

It’s not clear what’s next and coming
No time to dwell on the history past
For some triumph just comes running
For me it’s feeling like the die is cast

Tough to call it
Could go any way
Best to bite the bullet
Don’t matter which just pick any door

It’s Providence
Against lady luck
There ain’t no defense
It’s about giving in
Without giving up
That’s the way to win
It’s all there in the cards
Why am I trying so hard
To influence Providence
Can’t influence Providence

Living life like
There’s no tomorrow
I know that ain’t
No way to be
Having fun but
Causing sorrow
Now’s about time I see

One look in your angel eyes oh
And you can bet the devil in me dies

And now I’m hellbent
On making my way back to you
Girl you’re Heaven sent
Putting up with what
I put you through
You know I’m hellbent
Burning white hot and blue

Giving up that ain’t
A thing I’m thinking
Sticking to my story
And to you like glue
I’m signaling
Red lights blinking
My view is all fixed and new

No more of those lies and alibis no
Can’t let you go you know I’ve tried

And now I’m hellbent
On making my way back to you
Girl you’re Heaven sent
Putting up with what
I put you through
You know I’m hellbent
Whatever I need to do

We’re been running
From ourselves it’s true
It’s been tricky
But we’ve been lucky too

And maybe wisdom
Ain’t the only way
Maybe holding on
Is all it takes

We walked through fire
Faced down desire and now
We’re putting it back
Together somehow

No smoke and mirrors
Each night still shimmers
Silver bright
It’s finally feeling alright
Again
The end
Is fading into the distance
Baby just maybe we’re going
The distance

We’ve been changing
All along we know
When doors keep closing
Gotta hit the open road

Look for justice
And you’re just asking for pain
Seems like the secret is learning
To love the rain

We walked through the fire
Faced down desire and now
We’re putting it back
Together somehow

No smoke and mirrors
Each nights still shimmers
Silver bright
It’s finally feeling alright
Again
The end
Is fading into the distance
Baby just maybe we’re going
The distance

Girl we’re going the distance
Comes from knowing the difference

Now how many times did we see signs
To turn back
Sticking it out no doubt
Up ‘til our backbone’s breaking
Hard holding on when hope is gone
Don’t we both know it
Ain’t no escaping
This hunting ground

Come Hell or high water
Let’s keep on pushing through
All the pitfalls and firewalls
Aim for staying around

We’re still standing
Survivors of the longest night
Still standing
When we should be down
We start to fight
Our way through the crowd
Still standing
Still standing proud

Lying here in limbo no fear
Look at us
You’re my rock taking knocks
Just like an earthquake shaking
Tough staying strong
On right from wrong
What we believe in world’s moving
Like a dragging wagon wheel

Devil’s chasing demons
Tell us what else is new
Long odds and lightning rods
Baby it’s a battlefield

Cloudy skies
And drowning dreams
Same forecast
Just like in the past
I’m reeling
Falling free

No disguise
Can’t hide it seems
Hard to sleep
I just keep on
Fighting this feeling
C’mon and answer me

Just what happens
To a hurricane
That’s still blowing hard
But ain’t got nowhere to go
I’m a hurricane
Without a name
Howling fast and low
Oh I’m still a hurricane
Hurricane

Winter’s rising
This storming wind
From day one
Has been haunting the sun
No anchor
To hold me down

Why ask why
Our luck dead ends
Some see saw
It’s the cards that we draw
Check our hand
We’re swirling around

I’ve been waiting for you
Such a long long time
Baby
I thought you’d stay a vision in my mind
Surreal you’re real and I’m dying
Sure feels fine
Sadie
You came out of the clouds and now you’re mine

I was just sitting there stargazing
Searching for meaning in this life
Looking for what’s true
And suddenly finding you
Girl this feeling
Is just like a bent jackknife

I’ve been waiting for you
Such a long long time
Baby
I thought you’d stay a vision in my mind
Surreal you’re real I’m dying
Sure feels fine

You came out of the clouds and now you’re mine

You got me going I’m daydreaming
No notion you too you felt that way
Was chasing the fantasy
Then it caught up to me
It’s all led to this moment
Say you’re my main mainstay

I’ve been waiting for you
Such a long long time
Baby
I thought you’d stay a vision in my mind
Surreal you’re real and I’m dying
Sure feels fine
Sadie
You came out of the clouds and now you’re mine

Surreal you’re real
Sadie baby I can feel you’re real

Surreal you’re real Sadie
Surreal you’re real baby

Shifting ground
And now we’re going one more round
I say we’re drifting too far
From the dream

It’s a cold heart town
You can feel the streets
Pulling you down
All the while
We’re fighting our way upstream

We’re trying to hit the bullseye
But we keep on shooting broken arrows
Having some trouble aiming straight
But we’re gonna find the secret
Ain’t in waiting for a break
Or some new tomorrow
Never too late to start twisting our fate
Shed the deadweight
You know it ain’t no deathblow
Just some broken arrows
Broken arrows
Just some broken arrows

Sifting through
The piles of lies and truths
We see that lifting it up
Is the only way

It’s the things we do
Gotta stand up
And make that move
Go and grab our chances
start seizing the day

Went through some tunnels
And ended up here
Needed some space
And a place I could clear my head
Suddenly everything
Feels alright
At the edge of the earth
Where paradise lights up the night

And I’m so lucky I found you
Now I’m waking up to

A California morning
You’re my state of bliss
California morning
Gold sun and ocean mist

Go follow the coastline
There’s no getting lost
I’m finding my way
With no map saying where to go
Finally freedom
And it sure feels alright
At the edge of the earth
Where paradise lights up the night

It’s a blessing what you do
And I’m dreaming of you

California morning
You’re my state of grace
California morning
I finally found my place

And I’m so lucky I found you
Now I’m waking up to

A California morning
Not just a state of mind
California morning
Come seek and you will find

Putting the time in
Building up from the beginning
No guarantee you win
Might all slip away

On a dime then
You’re losing all it’s been
I ain’t some pretender
All I said is are you gonna stay

Then suddenly
It was the end of April
It’s as if time could fly
Wasn’t up to me
It was the end of April
All she said was goodbye
I tried
No ties
Goodbye goodbye

I was hoping it works out
Even though we both had our doubts
Still wondering what it’s about
No I never could read minds

Watching this flame out
No reason to rave and shout
Circling roundabout
Must’ve been blind not to see the signs

Lost in the universe
Can’t find my way
What’s going on
All over today

What they’re calling progress
Nobody can agree
Someone from somewhere in time
Come and save me

Now which way is up
This is getting me down
I’m fighting the driest desert
But I feel like I could drown
Well I can’t even stand
To look at the news
Welcome to the 21st Century
21st Century Blues

Found a few answers
From digging down deep
Feeling wide awake
While the world is fast asleep

Moving slow and foggy
The struggle to be free
We listen but are we hearing
Can we be believing what we see

Now this way is so tough
All this grinding on the ground
Do we rocket to another planet
Race to break the speed of sound
We’re living in an age
We don’t get to choose
Welcome to the 21st Century
21st Century Blues

Now and then
I sink just thinking back on when
We first were falling oh
How it mends or ends
It’s all way up in the air

And while I
Could try
To see all things the way you do
Plain truth is
We’ll always be two

But the one
Rising sun
The thing that’s bright the brilliant
Ray of hope here
It’s still me and you

Signs we send
Little lies we try and then defend
Our conscience calling
Mistakes no saints no sin
It’s all in the getting there

And while I
Could try
To see all things the way you do
Plain truth is
We’ll always be two

But the one
Rising sun
The thing that’s bright the brilliant
Ray of hope here
It’s still me and you

High up
In the sky you’ll see
Triumph
Melting down mercury
Hold on
To the dream we’ll be
Golden
And not just in memory

Ray of hope here
You’re my Rising Sun
Ray of hope here
You’re the Rising Sun

What a lovely day
I heard the lady say
Just not for us

Skies are turning gray
And it’s looking like they might hold sway
We’ve blown away our trust

And so we’re sitting here
Another path to clear
Keep climbing it’s all that we can do
When we’re seeking truth

Now there’s no shame in working at it
And there’s no time like now
I never claimed ain’t nothing to it
We’ll get through this somehow
Love is rising
Just keep your eyes on the horizon line
Horizon line

What a perfect world
When we’re on girl
Sunshine on us

But when we take a dive and swirl
We’re only gonna lose that pearl
Then our fortunes go bust

Might be fitting here
To say it ain’t what it appears
Let’s keep trying it’s all that we can do
The one thing that’s ringing true

The more I wonder the less I know
Trying to get closer just gets me drifting far away
The spell I’m under bubbles up from below
Guess finding peace ain’t the same
As finding the way back home

When I saw you standing there
It all came flooding back
Inside I tried my best not to stare
But in a flash I’m pulled like that

You’re like a magnet
You draw me in
Then like a bandit you make me spin
You’re like a magnet
You would do me in
But I can withstand it
Again n’ again n’ again n’ again
Again n’ again
No I’ll never say when
Keep it coming again n’ again

The score will never be even up
Dying to get traction just sets me slipping far behind
Struck like thunder so I fumble all the words
Winding roads is all I can find
But winding it up would be so much worse

When I saw you standing there
I knew I was on the hook
Inside I sighed but then I caught my breath
You were reading me just like a book

So shut down the both of us
We can’t help going round and round
When once is enough

Run in place or walk away
We can’t keep going on and on
Gotta make the change today
For tomorrow

It’s time we’d best be gettin’ along
Leave the place in the state we found it
Now it’s an open road we’re heading down
Let’s start the march stop messing round
Good to be moving on
Best be gettin’ along
The long long road
Gettin’ along

Too much talk just ain’t a plus
Always at it head-to-head
‘til the rapids get rough

We’re playing games nobody wins
I hope you’re on the up and up
No better way to begin
Our tomorrow

It’s time we’d best be getting along
Leave the place in the state we found it
Now it’s an open road we’re heading down
Let’s start the march stop messing round
Good to be moving on
Best be gettin’ along
The long long road
Gettin’ along

We see the signs let’s read them
But baby let’s not beat them
Like chains ‘til we’re bound
The freedom comes from knowing
Whatever fate’s got going
Our feet are on the ground

Guess today I’ll hit the road
Even though I can’t see too far
Carrying hurt and my heavy load
Trust me ain’t just me that’s battle scarred

Secret tales etched in inked in pictures
Making me another also ran
Believe me there ain’t no victor
Don’t know of no master plan

What’s coming into view
Is a soul that’s lost without you

Comes a time in a dark horse life
Take the fall or make a stand
My pen is my sword I wield like a knife
To mark my bloodline in the sand
But mine ain’t some headline story
Forgetting the pride and the glory
I’m doing the best I can
Just another illustrated man
Illustrated man

Guess tonight I’ll hit the hay
In a place I ain’t never been
Might meet some people it’s hard to say
Oh Lord I’m floored and here we go again

Could go alright I wouldn’t want to wager
If there’s a single thing I’ve learned
Don’t never bet against human nature
Surefire way to get burned

But it’s a blessing not a curse
In my heart I put you first

When we were young
We couldn’t see
All of this
Misery made up
Straight up
We’ve been fooling ourselves

So if we can
Why wouldn’t we
Keep hold of this
History we see some good
Seems like we should just
Learn to be thankful

Come escape into the past and see
We were tied but still breakin’ free
Come escape to the past with me
Breakin’ free

When I think back
What it used to be
Every kiss
Poetry made up
Paid up
We want a clean slate again

So if we stand
Stand proud and be
The best we were
Seriously we’ve seen some bad
Seems like we should just
Learn to be thankful

Been around as much as the next guy
No more no less
Then she came from out of the blue
Haunting me from stage left

Now who knows what’s coming
Of course I don’t need to wait and see
You wanna know what’s coming
Just ask me

Forever Amber
Wanna shout it out to the world
Whatever happens
No matter what might unfurl
Forever Amber
Well she’ll always be my girl

Been around as long as the dusty hills
Bit more or less
Stumbled across her along my travels
And my heart at the moment ain’t nothin’ left

Put on blinders
Shut out old reminders
But that act
Ain’t helping us at all

Face our nature
Girl we better make sure
Where we’re headed
Ain’t the final fall

We oughta know
By now it’s how it always goes
Seein’ the show
Ramp up again well why pretend
We’re at a crossroad
Could be our last episode
Might not be going far
‘til we start seein’ things
Really seein’ things
For what they are

When we wander
No way we stronger
We’re just banging our heads
Against the wall

Gotta face our future
Learn some new maneuvers
Catch our love
Before the curtain call

Started with a spark
Then built up to a blaze
Now we’re blocking sun and on the run
Trying to make sense of this maze

Some dreams seem like they’re up in smoke
And others are doing fine
Which way will we turn our gaze
Towards the devil or divine

To be close
Is the key we know
The very most
We could ask for

Fire n’ ash
Two sides of the same branch
Bound to clash
But are we done
Or has a new leaf just begun
Is there still a chance or just destruction
For a while goes well then some detour to Hell
Comes in waves and flashes
We started a fire now we’re left with ashes
Fire n’ ash

I know I did my part
Let the heat drop and watched us fade
Got caught up in all the tangling
Lost the poetry we made

Back and forth on destiny’s wheel
Baby where will we land
We’re getting whipped by a howling wind
It’s all slipping away like sand

Why are we drifting so off course
Ranging from fury to remorse
Dancing around answers then not paying attention
How it all ties in we’re rising to redemption

Soaring through the skies
Just watching how the crow flies
Shortest path between two points of view
The more we hear his cries
The more we feel we need to keep on trying
Hey baby word to the wise
Let’s take it as the crow flies

How do we get this back in on track
Seeing the light cracking through the black
Thinking we’re sinking in our own creation
Girl this ain’t playing we’re praying for salvation

Soaring through the skies
Just watching how the crow flies
Shortest path between two points of view
The more we hear his cries
The more we feel we need to keep on trying
Hey baby word to the wise
Let’s take it as the crow flies

Watch the crow always knows where he’s going
But how can we find our way
Seems like there’s always something
That’s leading us astray
We’ve been looking for a road map
When our guide’s up in the air
Let’s just get right to it
Trade hope for our despair

Call it smoke of dreams
Or fog of love
Truth is we’re not up in the clouds
Like we were dreaming of

Sure some of it’s a blur
But you’re still the one thing
Gets my soul to stir
But now we’re both needing space
A little time anyway
You can feel it I’m sure

We’re living in a house of strangers
And now we’re strangers for the second time
It ain’t safe when a kiss can mean danger
Now maybe it’s the wine
But baby here’s the line
It’s a house of strangers
House of strangers

Wall it off from pain
It’s a tug of war
Truth is it’s not just that we’re fighting
We forgot what we were fighting for

Well maybe it’s the end
We’re gonna break in two unless we learn to bend
The finish line is up ahead
A few kind words just to say
Instead of making trouble
Let’s make amends

For the first time in a long time I feel alive
Not thrown or thunderstruck
Sun’s out and I’m unstuck
Life’s new and I’m getting to it
For the first time in a long long time

Life’s been flying by
But the light’s not right it’s dimming
Struggling all the time
With just the part that’s living

What can we do to keep it all going
Move it along not go and throwing
It all away

For the first time in a long time I feel alive
Not thrown or thunderstruck
Sun’s out and I’m unstuck
Life’s new and I’m getting through it
For the first time in a long long time

Ever wonder why we think
We’re due the few things we’re missing
Always wrestling with the world
But that don’t make destiny listen

So what can we try to keep the good showing
Have the inside out and both knowing
Love is the way

Never saw it coming
What a beautiful surprise
Through the shadows I could see
Moon in her hair fire in her eyes

Another golden day
Is coming to a close
Under sapphire skies
My silver star she glows

Feels like I’ve seen it all
Then I look at her and now
A sleepless night
I leave the earth like a bird in endless flight
She’s quite the sight
Dawn in twilight

Never heard a saying
That captured her majesty
The way she moves every turn and twirl
The girl she sure moves me

Never want to leave
Ain’t no bad side
Call me blind and crazy
But in her I will confide

Digging through the rubble
And replaying games again
Borrowing back the trouble
Ain’t the way I recommend

We get back inspiration
Rearview mirror is known to lie
Let’s wait for some new station
Down the road is where we should shine our lights

Yesterday is gone forever
And today may be good or bad
But we know we can’t be living in the past
Look ahead instead and tell me
What you think the secret is to make it last
Maybe right now we’re seeing red
But baby let’s not be misled
Let’s keep lookin’ up ahead
Things are lookin’ up ahead
Lookin’ up

Going back to old days
Won’t change a single thing
Heading straight for old ways
And all the sorrow that it brings

It’s all our own creation
We got a line we must defend
Let’s wait and be real patient
Let’s get it out and then let it all sink in

Yesterday is gone forever
And today may be good or bad
But we know we can’t be living in the past
Look ahead instead and tell me
What you think the secret is to make it last
Right now we’re seeing red
But baby let’s not be misled
Let’s keep lookin’ up ahead
Things are lookin’ up ahead
Lookin’ up

We might have it right right in front of us
Might have lost sight but if we love enough
Might be right in front of us

Tell me somethin’ baby
Tell me somethin’ I wanna hear
Doing nothing maybe
Now that’s somethin’
We wanna steer clear of

It’s all good baby
Ain’t no big decisions
I’m just sitting here looking and wishing
You nothing but love
Don’t gotta be the one thing
But baby please tell me somethin’
Nothing ain’t enough
Tell me somethin’

We’re not the same no one is to blame
Ain’t just a game the pain we’re in
Must be the moon I hope it’s ending soon
It’s just a tune a battle cry we’re singing

Tell me somethin’ baby
Tell me somethin’ I wanna hear
Doing nothing maybe
Now that’s somethin’
We wanna steer clear of

It’s all wrong baby
Some real bad conditions
I’m just sitting here looking and fishing
Don’t gotta be the main thing
But baby please tell somethin’

We’re off the rail we’ve lost the trail
Are we gonna bail or just hang in
Must be the time ready to redefine
Who knows what we’ll find
Once we stop dragging

It’s in my dreams
Out of a mysterious past
Images
I can’t help but see betrayal

I can’t run
Time to take off all of the masks
There’s nowhere to hide
Confrontation is the only way

I’ll chase down all the lingering ghosts this time
Gotta keep them in line
Now I’m willing to start rebuilding

Stone by stone
I’m taking my time
Reading all the signs
It’s a long road home
Checking every winding path
Every twisted vine
Stone by stone
Clearing a way making peace
With just what I’ve reaped and
What I’ve sown
Stone by stone

It’s in your eyes
Into a swirling world I see
Images
You can’t keep from me you’re drowning
Baby I’ve been there
And I’ve got the key to set us both free
Let’s reach deep inside
Every thorn we’ll wear proud like a crown

No pointing fingers
Better pay the fine
It’s our burden but it ain’t no crime
Lord willing let’s start rebuilding

I only see what I see
I only know from what you’re telling me
You only do what you wanna do
What’s the latest story your selling me

I can’t follow you where you’re going
Who can say where you been

There’s no keeping watch I promise you that
Who’s keeping score anymore
The past is the past
To live is to forgive
Life goes by
Faster than fast
Sand is slipping
Through the hourglass

We only think we have control
We don’t only know what we learn in school
I only hope we get it right
It ain’t from blindly sticking to the rules

Don’t follow me no sense of direction
Who can say where’s where it ends
No keeping watch I promise you that
Who’s keeping score anymore
The past is the past
To live is to forgive
Life goes by
Faster than fast
Sand is slipping
Through the hourglass

What happened then no fatal flaw
There’s still a chance I’m still in awe
Of way back when
What went down
Was way back then
Way back then

Hey robin sing your song
And one more thing
How did it come to you
Anyway I hear your call
I guess you too are only passing through

Now fly just as high in the sky as you can
By the time you reach night
You just might need a hand

No river is too wide to cross
No mountain too high to scale
If you ever need a friend
I’ll never falter never fail
I’m here for you I’m there
Anytime anyplace just say when and where
Hit me up you’ll see
You can count on me

Hey baby bring me along
And one more thing
How do we keep it true
It was only in September
We were doing good now we’re just making do

Try as we might it’s fight or flight that’s our way
At the darkest edge of night
In our sights
A brand new day

Triumphs and flame-outs
Good times and bad
Headlocks and heartaches
What a ride we’ve had
Let’s get perspective
It’s a big world out there
It’s all connected
Ain’t going nowhere

We’re all hoping for justice
Looking for the next break
Just how important us is
It’s the only big mistake
We can make

Come fly over the moon with me
Come lie under the stars and you’ll be
Amazed to face this grace set free
Look how small we all are
In this endless sea
Endlessly

Late nights and burn-outs
Tried to find the way
Head-on and carrying on
Thinking come what may

But love is collective
The work is never done
It can’t be perfected
But it can be undone

We’re all hoping for justice
Looking for the next break
How important us is
The only big mistake
We can make

Come fly over the moon with me
Come lie under the stars and you’ll be
Amazed to face this grace set free
Look how small we all are
In this endless sea
Endlessly

Ain’t a question of what we take
But what we’re giving
Gotta make our peace with this world
This world we live in

Where do we find the courage
How do we come up with a plan
We ain’t the first and we ain’t the worst
We’re just like every woman and every man

Why do we play
What we know is a losing game
I’m just thinking of
Life and love
They’re both the same

Don’t wait a minute come at it
There’s no hiding out
Or going half the way
You know you’re in it come at it
Gotta give all we got to give
That’s all I wanna say
Don’t waste a minute come at it
Today

Where do we look for answers
How do we live up to a dream
We ain’t the only that are lost and lonely
So tell me what does it all mean

Why do we stay
When we know a better way
I’m just thinking of
Life and love
They’re both the same

Don’t wait a minute come at it
There’s no hiding out
Or going half the way
You know that you’re in it come at it
Gotta give all we got to give
That’s all I wanna say
Don’t waste a minute come at it
Today

Don’t wait a minute come at it
There’s no hiding out
Or going half the way
You know that you’re in it come at it
Gotta give all we got to give
That’s all I wanna say
Don’t wait a minute come at it
Face the world and feel the pain
Don’t waste a minute come at it
Today

Being so close can cloud the view
And girl we’ve been so blind
Don’t know what we were thinking
What we thought we’d find

Why do we go and turn our world
Inside out and upside down
Just crash and burn the past
When it’s gold we found

We’ve seen it before
Still the hunt for love goes on
How do we make it stronger
Before it’s up and gone

We’ve been searching everywhere
Under the sun
Couldn’t see that we
Might be our own salvation
We had all the answers all along
Thought our luck ran dry
But you and I guessed wrong

We’re all looking looking for the one
That’s Heaven on earth the one
Under the sun
We’ve come too far to give up now
The future’s ours to take
Find a new way of thinking
Playing it smart for old times sake

I know we can save it girl
If we could come around
To the fact that a big comeback
Means driving it home not in the ground

We’ve seen it before
Still the hunt for love goes on
How do we make it stronger
Before it’s up and gone

We’ve been searching everywhere
Under the sun
Couldn’t see that we
Might be our own salvation
We had all the answers all along
Thought our luck ran dry
but you and I guessed wrong

No more looking looking for the one
You’re heaven on earth the one
Under the sun

Started with a heart the size of Texas
Got beat down along the way
Been feeling like I’m under it
On the other side and over it
That is until today

It all weighs on you
Ain’t that so true

In my dreams
I’m back in Abilene
Back before life got so complicated
And you’re there with me
We’re back in Abilene
Asking why we waited so crazy long
To follow the path
That will lead us home
Back to Abilene

Wanted to forget the way the world is
Just hide inside your arms
Follow bliss straight back to this
All we need is all we miss
Where we can be safe from harm

It all weighs on you
Ain’t that so true

If we drive all night
We’re back in Abilene
I for one will sure appreciate it
And you‘ll be there with me
Back in Abilene
Asking why we waited so crazy long
To follow the path
That will lead us home
This road we’ve always known
The yearning has grown
Let’s get back
Back to Abilene

I know by heart
The beacon that leads me home
In the back of my mind
I guess I’ve always known

All roads lead straight to
Heading back to you
Somewhere out there
I’m thinking of you
Hope you’re thinking it too

Leave a light on
Don’t think of me as gone
Was out all night well alright
But I’ll be back before dawn
Baby leave a light on
Leave a light on

I know by now
Ain’t worth it to always roam
In the back of my car
Some nights that’s been my home
All thoughts lead straight to
You and all you do
Out there somewhere
I’m hoping that you
Have forgiven me too

Leave a light on
Don’t think of me as gone
Was out all night well alright
But that don’t make me all wrong
Baby leave a light on
Leave a light on

Leave a light on
Don’t think of me as gone
A candle burning bright what a beautiful sight
Told you I’d be back before long
Always leave a light on
Leave a light on

Where do we stand
And how do we get by
How much can we withstand
We still have to keep on trying anyway
Rewrite our history every day

Now we’re rolling the dice
And we just might see what fortune brings
That’s the way with this life
Suffice it to say just like all things
It’s mostly out of our hands
And sometimes we don’t understand
We’ll take our chances we’ll find paradise
Keep on rolling the dice

There’s the big rub
I can’t win in the end
Everything we love
We still have to lose and make amends any way
And remake the mystery every day

Now we’re rolling the dice
And we just might see what fortune brings
That’s the way with this life
Suffice it to say just like all things
It’s mostly out of our hands
And sometimes we don’t understand
We’ll take our chances we’ll find paradise
Keep on rolling the dice

It’s mostly out of our hands
And sometimes we can’t understand
We’ll take our chances we’ll find paradise
Rollin’ the dice

We might just find
You get what you give

We’re rolling the dice
Think twice
Take flight
Just one shot to live

Keep on rolling the dice

I could tell when I met you
One thing was true
That I could never forget you
I was struck
And we were stuck like glue

From first light through every trial
We picked up speed
Then we started to pile up the miles
Unleashed a stampede

On that desert drive
When we came together
Just two hearts melting in the sun
It’s been years
And we’re still counting
We know it’s hard
But we know that we ain’t through
Let’s take that desert drive again just me and you

We could live like we want to
Make our own mistakes
Each knew the other would come through
Take the time
Read the signs and renew

At first sight it started to glow
We stoked that fire
No second guessing off to the show
Full of desire

On that desert drive
When we came together
Just two hearts melting in the sun
It’s been years
And we’re still counting
We know it’s hard
But we know that we ain’t through
Let’s take that desert drive again just me and you

Our first night open and bright
Made us feel so alive
We’ve lost sight let’s make it right
C’mon let’s go for a ride

Take that desert drive
And come back together
Spark two hearts melting in the sun
It’s been years
And we’re still counting
We know it’s hard
But we know that we ain’t through
Let’s take that desert drive again just me and you
Just me and you

In calm or in tempest
In the glare of noon
Or black of night
You are my temptress
Could lead me to doom
Or my highest height

Just out of curiosity
What am I to you
You’re everything to me

Will it be sun or shadows
Living free or bound
Just can’t walk away
From the battleground
Think I’ll stick around
Check it out
Stick around

In storm or in stillness
Any color you choose
You still shine through
There’s always that brilliance
I would hate to lose
What keeps me loving you

Don’t need no high velocity
Let’s take it slow
Seize the moment and we will see

Will it be sun or shadows
Living free or bound
Just can’t walk away
From the battleground
Think I’ll stick around
Check it out
Stick around

Wanna stick around to see
How it might work out with you and me
Nothing could have kept me from it
All we want
We won it

Back and forth with these battles
Swim across or drown
We gotta get this love
On solid ground
Think I’ll stick around
Check it out
Stick around

It’s been such a long while
And I’m really alright with that
Things can’t always go your way I know
And though it’s so that opposites attract

Sometimes the tangling is just too much
And we lose our grip and sense of touch
But you’re still stuck with me
At least in my fantasies

No day goes by
That I don’t think of you
I wish time would fly like it used to oh
No matter how hard I try
Makes no difference what I do
No day goes by I don’t think of you

No day goes by
No day goes by

I’m seeing your sweet smile
And really so much more than that
If lady luck could come my way you’d see
I’d be back in the ring and baby that’s a fact

Sometimes the hoping just ain’t enough
We lose our way when the breaks get tough
The way it is with me
It’s pretty plain to see

No day goes by
That I don’t think of you
I wish time would fly like it used to oh
No matter how hard I try
Makes no difference what I do
No day goes by I don’t think of you

No day goes by

Your shadow I can’t seem to shake
And in my dreams we’re lost in love
Makes me wanna break right through that wall
You’re still all I ever wanted
All I’m dreaming of

No day goes by
That I don’t think of you
I wish time would fly like it used to oh
No matter how hard I try
Makes no difference what I do
No day goes by
No day goes by
No day goes by I don’t think of you

No day goes by
No day goes by
No day goes by

Everything in life is timing
And everything in love needs to feel real
Can’t fake your way into Heaven
And love just ain’t something
A lonely heart can steal

It’s gotta be given to you
And if you want you can give it back

Love times two
Helps when devotion is returned
One day it’s ringing so true
Then that night you might get burned
Be careful who
You’re giving it to
Loves times two
Love ties two

What if all the strife was silver lining
And we’re all born to push and pull through
We know it can go from good to wicked
But love sure is something
Has the power to renew

It can be the greatest thing
Let’s keep trying til we get the knack

Love times two
Helps when devotion is returned
Just when dreams are coming true
Then like a spike you’re getting spurned
Now careful who
You’re giving it to
Loves times two
Love ties two
Loves times two

If you’re anywhere
Anywhere at all
Or maybe not and now you’ve got
Your back against the wall

We all still know
Can’t make it through alone
Just think what we owe
To all the unknown
Gone but not forgotten

It’s all built on the shoulders of brothers
And friends we never met
And now getting older it’s getting easier
To deny it or just plain forget
Without the power of mothers
It ends and we all know that
Just keep on looking back with no regret
And in your heart start paying back the greatest debt
Gone but not forgotten
Not forgotten

Here’s to the pioneers
Who got us here today
Gotta be grateful for those who came before
The ones who paved the way

Their words still echo
Most deeds would make you proud
Their voice is so silent
So I’ll say it out loud
Gone but not forgotten

It’s all built on the shoulders of brothers
And friends we never met
And now getting older it’s getting easier
To deny it or just plain forget
Without the power of mothers
It ends and we all know that
Just keep on looking back with no regret
And in your heart start paying back the greatest debt
Gone but not forgotten
Not forgotten

Just wondering why
It needs to be tonight
You know it’s nothing new
It’s just what we do

But I keep holding on
Won’t be too long
Until we find our way again
Our feet of clay will catch some wind

Oh if we could fly and be seeing down over it
We’ll ride through the skies surveying everything
We’d realize that the size well it just don’t fit
Our kind of trouble is just the littlest bit
And we gotta get over it
We’re chasing shooting stars
Shooting stars

It starts when we see
Ain’t all about you and me
You know it’s nothing bad
The heartaches we’ve had

So keep holding tight
Gotta get this part right
We’ll find our way to land
Get our feet of clay out of quicksand

Oh if we could fly and be seeing down over it
We’ll ride through the skies surveying everything
We’d realize that the size well it just don’t fit
Our kind of trouble is just the littlest bit
And we gotta get over it
We’re chasing shooting stars
Shooting stars

In the winter
Guess things tend to look their bleakest
That was in our weakest moment
We went and broke it
In two

Just a trial so we’d see
If we could be apart

Sometimes it might feel one-sided
But love’s better when we’re undivided
Undivided
Reunited being split we tried it
Baby it feels like it’s been decided
Undivided
Undivided

Just a splinter
Starts us off and now the latest
It’s true not our greatest moment
But we better own it
Us two

In denial so we’d hide
Too much pride inside we know

We’ll never be satisfied if
We can’t go back to being undivided
Undivided
Might have been more than a bit misguided
I don’t see how we can fight it
Undivided
Undivided

Takes faith to wait and not to run
Let’s make believe that we’ve just begun
Reset and forget and once again we can be as one

Every story has got two sides and
As long as love can stay undivided
Undivided
If it’s flagging we got to revive it
Baby please tell me you’ve decided
Undivided

Sometimes it might feel one-sided
But love’s better when we’re undivided
Undivided
Reunited being split we tried it
Tell me you’ve decided
Undivided
Undivided