LAST LONG GOODBYE

There’s a lot you might have done

To make this sit better with me

More than wringing your hands

And claiming double jeopardy

Somewhere along the way

It seems I missed a warning sign

Now you’ve aired your grievances

Let me spare you most of mine

With a last long goodbye

The weight of things unsaid

Still hanging in the air

As a last long goodbye

This road ends at the water

Sink or swim, I’ll follow it there

Head out west to Amarillo

Where they bury their dead cars

Straight across Arizona

Desert-dry and cut from stars

On through a country worn out

From tearing itself in two

The more I look, the more I see

It’s uncannily you

On my last long goodbye

For whatever it’s worth

I’m trading up my share

To a last long goodbye

This road ends at the water

Sink or swim, I’ll follow it there

Night falls on the shuttering motels

Postcards from the ghosts of travels past

Turn in by the vacancy sign

And toast another dream that’s fading fast

There’s a lot you might have done

To make this sit better with me

But then maybe the distance

Is its own diplomacy

Take my chances with the terra firma

Sliding below

A thousand miles behind me

With five hundred left to go

Of my last long goodbye

There’s nothing to defend

And nothing to declare

Just a last long goodbye

This road ends at the water

Sink or swim, I’ll follow it there