87 North

87 North in the driving rain in the spray of a semi bound for Montreal I've buried a few friends and a couple dreams Got the headstones just waiting on the ground to thaw The first time I tried to outrun sorrow I was 16, passport in my glovebox On a North Country road towards tomorrow Thought I knew about nostalgia and hard knocks There are better things to pick a fight with Than the deaf, drunken ghosts inside your head Because one day you'll wake up to find out That the life of the party is dead So I turned tail for the timberline Past the old barns and the older pines It's a funny way that time chooses to unwind Well the road might outlive you But the one thing that it won't do is forgive you Still a dollar from breaking even, a mile from breaking down It's just the current of least resistance Just like trying to chase lighting from a distance Might as well forgive yourself if you're gonna stick around Met the cowboy prophet of the corner store Grabbing coffee just before the border He told me "Those that can afford the time to think Don't seem to end up any smarter Too many self-made saints charging by the hour Just to sell you the sunset for a song But we're not here like fragile wildflowers We're fragile like a bomb" "Those already born in Paradise Wouldn't recognize redemption if they saw it The winters ain't what they used to be But they're caught up in what to call it Remember the courage it takes to run Somewhere they don't see silence as a threat Because the past is prison 'neath a foreign sun And the highway hasn't quite failed me yet." Well the road might outlive you But the one thing that it won't do is forgive you Still a dollar from breaking even, a mile from breaking down It's just the current of least resistance Just like trying to chase lighting from a distance Might as well forgive yourself if you're gonna stick around