And I sat before his sanity
I was holding back from crying
And he mirrored me back, simplified
And we laughed how our perfection
"Heart and humor and humility"
He said, "will lighten up your heavy load"
I left him then for the refuge of the roads
I fell in with some drifters
Winn Dixie cold cuts and highway hand me downs
And I wound up fixing dinner
Thinking back down the roads to then
The nets were overflowing
They were overflowing in the refuge of the roads
There was spring along the ditches
There were good times in the cities
It was all so light and easy
And I brought on my old ways
A thunderhead of judgment was
And it made most people nervous
They just didn't want to know
What I was seeing in the refuge of the roads
I pulled off into a forest
Crickets clicking in the ferns
I heard my fate turn, turn, turn
And I went running down a white sand road
I was running like a white-assed deer
Running to lose the blues
These are the clouds of Michelangelo
Muscular with gods and sungold
Shine on your witness in the refuge of the roads
In a highway service station
Was a photograph of the earth
Taken coming back from the moon
And you couldn't see a city
On that marbled bowling ball
You couldn't see these cold water restrooms
Westbound and rolling, taking refuge in the roads