Forty Miles From Nowhere

It rained today, the clouds rolled up at dawn

All hell burst wide open and just like that was gone

Your little lapdog chased a fox tailed squirrel

Across the main road through the wood

Some ninja on a dirt bike nearly ran him down for good

Right about now it gets quiet around here

What with nightfall in the wings

The floorboards creak and faucets leak

But it's the emptiness that sings

The wind grows chill and then lies still

40 miles from nowhere

At the bottom of the world

November sky's a diamond-studded dome

A hundred billion points of light to guide my way back home

When the moon is hanging fat and full

And all those jangly stars recede

A fold out couch on a midnight porch is

Where my footsteps lead

You always said I made my bed

40 miles from nowhere

At the bottom of the world

Friends don't call like they used to for reasons not unkind

If there's anything that we can do rings hollow down a telephone line

There's a cedar grove in back of the house

Maybe halfway down the hill

A place to go and just lay low when there's time to fill

A few gravestones, a pre-civil war fence and the random arrowhead

Is where the beehive swarmed three

Summers ago, "Too wet, " the old men said

So it's me your little lapdog and

That old brindle cat trying to keep this place in line

And heading into town these days is the last thing on my mind

I weep for you

It's what I do

40 miles from nowhere

At the bottom of the world

40 miles from nowhere

At the bottom of the world