In Salida

Once upon a recent time
 With days to kill and a long long drive
 The detour to where he once was mine
 I found myself back in Salida.
 There was a man with eyes like the sea
 The green and gold of summer weed
 Who held his heart between his teeth
 There was a man who once chose me
 Brick fall in at the back of the bar
 . like a river folded arms
 His arrow stare tore me apart
 Off my course broke both our hearts
 But the second time around
 We held each other underground
 In the shadows of the city lights
 My ring-burnt skin his covered eyes
 Like a dream that rolls down hill
 We tumbled headfirst as we spilled
 Still we tried to hold on to the wind
 I never saw him again.
 Now with time to spare and a borrowed car,
 Skin tight aggrieving heart
 From another love, another time,
 I retraced the steps I'd left behind
 Went back to that mountain town,
 I whispered his name to the threatening clouds,
 Trying to conjure up that underground
 Afraid to speak his name out loud
 It was a place where time had slowed
 Now its cafes are vintage clothes
 And I knew who I'd come here to let go,
 And left long ago.
 We tasted then the desire and rage
 Like actors on off-Broadway,
 This time I knew more was at stake
 Alone I chased regret and age
 I tried to trap them in my songs
 But always got the timing wrong
 So now I'm chasing down where I belong
 To pay my dues before I'm gone
 Chasing all the untied ends
 I'm chasing them down so they blurring blend into one great love
 I'll make amends and pull back from the edge again
 And heal the thing that stuck and broke
 The knot it's always in my throat
 A country on the verge of an overthrow
 Rusted belly of a sunken boat
 And in the last light of that winter's day
 I lit a match and I watched the flames
 From the biggest fire that I could make
 Made a coyote breath, a river.
 The Hudson Line, the ...
 The Cumberland, the Arkansas, traveled a long way from Tennessee
 To settle this free.
 Once upon a recent time
 With days to kill and a long long drive
 The detour to where he once was mine
 I found myself back in Salida,
 In Salida
 In Salida