i'm biting nails...they're not my own

we're shooting down familiar roads
to fast to sleep in this damp fog
i'm out loud wondering where we've been and going
and they all trust me with their shoes

don't fall asleep resume control
these mountains hold a secret baby
tell me again in that faint indigenous whisper how the sky made us and we it then

feed me roadside attractions while i'm on my scabbed knees
in filthy rags that stink of paradise

there's a hole we haven't traversed yet
and a forrest of decay at every off ramp
i've eaten crow in many states
but this one has a funny aftertaste of soul food in the evening dew

i'm not coming home
i'm leaving you
to ruin and abysmal calm
but the way the papers screw things up
it was always your intention

now in misery the best days of my life are underway
there's too much to see and we only have two eyes
like a sad sadistic trick played out through fallible love and conception of us little ones
amazed at first at the vibrant colors on the clorox bleach bottle
and then in the years to come not being sure what to take in first or last or during mid meal snacks just before the filling station has run out of things to promise you
there it is a trail of tears
i put my tongue to the ground to taste the native salt
and weep a little as the surrounding inhabitants never seem to notice
that sloppy bit of blood on their hands

dear friend i missed your latest departure and i can't remember what you said the last time we made love