Keep the Window Cracked

The bus rode out past Flagstaff

With a paper cup gone cold

October on the windshield

Copper hills beneath the road

Your postcard stayed beside me

Though I never wrote you back

Every mile kept turning

Like a thumbprint on the map

And the mountains fell behind us

While the engine held its line

I was learning how to miss you

Without calling it goodbye

Keep the window cracked, let the dry air in

Let the long road pull me where it will

There's a little gold left on the passenger side

And a song I haven't finished tonight

If I'm carrying something that's lighter than before

With the desert opening door after door

I don't know where this highway bends

But it feels like beginning again

At a truck stop near the border, I bought apples and a match

Watched the driver change the tires while the sun slid down the dash

The crew was sleeping softly in the bunks behind the wall

I stood beneath the water tower and heard the empty distance call

There are names I still remember, there are towns I won't explain

Some things leave without a warning, some things stay inside the grain

Keep the window cracked

Dry air in

Let the long road pull me where it will

There's a little gold left on the passenger side

And a song I haven't finished tonight

If I'm carrying something that's lighter than before

With the desert opening door after door

I don't know where this highway bends

But it feels like beginning again

When the headlights find the fence post and the crew wakes up for sound

I'll be somewhere past the next ridge with the whole wide dark around

No promise in the rearview, no reason to pretend

Just a heart that keeps its rhythm and a road that doesn't end

Keep the window cracked, let the dry air in

Let the long road pull me where it will

There's a little gold left on the passenger side

And a song still rising into the night

If I'm carrying something lighter than before

With the desert opening door after door

I don't know where this highway bends

But I'll follow where it sends me

Bus rolls on past midnight

The mountains lose their names

One more mile beneath the tide

One more spark inside the flame