Dar Williams

I have gone to the west:
The emerald kingdom highway
It’s like a hero’s path I’m following

I don’t know what to think
What to do with myself today
Shouldn’t I hear the future calling me?

Under a low cloud
Vanishing up through the treeline of the mountain
Catching the light from the morning on a river come to life:
The grand Columbia

I’ve returned this time
Through these cascades in autumn
And for once, I am unquestioning

I can see the boatmen shout
Over the wind and engines
As the gold coins shower from aspen trees

And into the twilight
The hazy moon on the amethystine river
Watching the hair and lifting up
And her wings spread wide as the Columbia

Unbeknownst to my pride
I had filled my memories
With these hours of gold and emerald light

Now I plunge my hands
Into all this time I’ve lived
And the jewels spill through my fingers

I am back in the west
On this canyon highway
I can see a girl is passing

She is going so fast
I can hardly tell it’s me
Doesn’t she know that she’ll be traveling

Under a low cloud
Out of the northwest and through the Rocky Mountains
Across the prairies to the Appalachian
Rises now the Pennsylvania farms into the traffic of the eastern cities
Into my town, onto my street
Up the stairs, into my house
Grab the kids, and out the back into the garden