This Road - Trapezoid

The road stirs in the distance

I stop and strain to view (I stop to take a look)

across the bridge around the bend

another passing through (he's goin' faster than he should)

he trails the road behind him

never waves or slows

A headlong flight to somewhere else

he hurries down the road

Who is this passing stranger

Who travels all alone

Along some road to nowhere

So far away from home

I watch him at the crossing

I watch him fade to dust

he travels when he wants to

I travel when I must

This road was young when my granddad

first plowed this tired land

this road saw neighbors come and go

and come and go again

across the river, through the gap

back and forth they flowed

out of mem’ry, out of sight

and out of this old road

I remember all the young men

Their call came loud and clear:

Get a job, get a car

Get the hell away from here

And, one by one, they all were blown

Like dust upon the wind

Till what was left were those who found

the road back home again

This road was young when my granddad

first plowed this tired land

this road saw neighbors come and go

and come and go again

across the river, through the gap

back and forth they flowed

out of mem’ry, out of sight

and out of this old road

I guess the day will finally come

when this road’s just like the rest

No wild thread, but straight and wide

where cars pass two abreast

there’ll be no place for folks like me

no place for sweet and slow

down the highway fast and fierce

a long time down this road

This road was young when my granddad

first plowed this tired land

this road saw neighbors come and go

and come and go again

across the river, through the gap

back and forth they flowed

out of mem’ry, out of sight

and out of this old road

for the sweetest days are the days I’ve known

standing here by the side of the road

watching others come and go

at home on this old road