State Road 25 - ThouShaltNot

You’re driving, it’s just after midnight

And pavement fades to dirt roads, cast grey by your high beams

And in a flash you see me: I’m waving to you so hopefully

«I'm so drowsy and I was hoping

That you could drop me off at the stone house

That’s over just two more hills

I’ve got to get home before my parents start worrying for me»

Between the kindness of strangers and the rumble of the road

There’s a slow kind of remembering that takes years to unfold

Its in the dahlias by the ditches and the backseat of a car

Yes I am grateful to the strangers who have taken me this far

And as the trees soaked with starlight in time

Are replaced by endless crosses suspending electrical arteries

And streetlights and billboards for pesticide, I say, «we're almost there»

You glance in your rearview and see just how

Filthy I have gotten from walking in darkness

Since God knows when

And turning you look to the house now ablaze in yellow glare

Between the kindness of strangers and the rumble of the road

There’s a slow kind of remembering that takes years to unfold

Its in the dahlias by the ditches and the backseat of a car

And I am grateful to the strangers who have taken me this far

I am grateful to the strangers who have taken me this far

So you step out to open my door and

To wish me well;

it’s freezing, yes, it’s absolutely as cold as hell

And red glowing hazard lights blink like clock out of sync

Are you all alone now?

Where could I

Have run off to so quickly?

A knock on my parents' door

A knowing sigh

My father will ask you inside

Ask you if the one to whom you had given my ride

Was all dirty pale and quiet with racehorse’s eyes

'Cause you know that I’ve been gone since 1995

And you’re not the first to try

(But I’m still alive)

Between the kindness of strangers and the rumble of the road

There’s a slow kind of remembering that takes years to unfold

Its in the dahlias by the ditches and the backseat of a car

And I am grateful to the strangers who have taken me

Yes I am grateful to the strangers who have taken me