Northbound 35 - Richard Shindell

Northbound 35

Through the iron hills

Under infidel skies

It’s two hundred miles to drive

You won’t be home

I saw an elsebound train

On the overpass

In the driving rain

Every ticket costs the same

For where you can’t go

Mustang horses, champagne glasses

Anything frail anything wild

It’s the price of living motion

What’s beautiful is broken

And grace is just the measure of a fall

So I rolled into your town

I passed the smokestacks

And the ore docks down off of Main

And the sky spun around

With her diamonds on fire

We fought all night and then we danced

In your kitchen

You were as much in my hands

As water or darkness or nothing

Can ever be held

It’s just flashes that we own

Little snapshots

Made from breath and from bone

And out on the darkling plain alone

They light up the sky

It’s 51 and driving south

Ain’t it funny

How things’ll turn out

I never even kissed you on the mouth

When we said goodbye