The Road

How much time and how many sad miles

before I lay this body down?

Will this lonely road take me to new places

where all my old friends can be found?

I see the road is long and the road is dry

with dark sorrow along the way.

It’s the smile I see upon your face

that sustains me through the day.

The sun is hard and the sun is hot

and shadows lay across the land.

I feel the grit invade my eyes

weeping wet in the blowing sand.

I hear the cry of a solitary magpie

who lies hidden in the sage.

Its sad sound echoes across the wind

through the rocks that never age.

Thin clouds sail across the sky

looking for a home they never find.

I taste the bitter disappointment

that has settled deep within my mind.

There is a smell of death along the road

that sometimes comes to fill the air.

Alas, I have traveled too many happy miles

to leave it now without despair.