Dashboard Dreams

Crayon house taped to the dash
Exit forty-one
Test at nine
Dashboard dreams

Three AM, the trailer rolled
County road ran black and cold
Mara slept against the window
Lucy's shoes lay in her shadow
Forty-six dollars in my wallet
Welding address in the door
Her green-roof house above the gauges
Said what all this driving's for

Odometer, don't tell me no
Morning's somewhere up this road

Dashboard dreams in the windshield glow
Dashboard dreams
Crayon house shows where we're gonna go
Gas light blinking; state line coming soon
Dashboard dreams under one more moon

Gas light came on west of Clayton
Mara counted bills by phone
I said, If I fail at nine
We'll turn around at county line
She laid one hand across the drawing
Home ain't where the landlord knew
From the back, our girl woke asking
Does the new town have fireflies too?

Odometer, don't tell me no
Morning's breaking up this road

Dashboard dreams in the windshield glow
Dashboard dreams
Crayon house shows where we're gonna go
Gas light blinking; state line coming soon
Dashboard dreams under one more moon

At the state-line sign, dawn opened
Lucy pressed her face to glass
Mara sketched a porch swing
On the house above the dash
I said, Home isn't behind us
It's the thing we're driving to
Turn signal kept the count just right
Under the first clean morning light

Dashboard dreams in the windshield glow
Dashboard dreams
Crayon house shows where we're gonna go
Gas light blinking; Exit Forty-One soon
Dashboard dreams under a daylight moon

Test at nine
Her hand in mine
Crayon house above the gauges
Dashboard dreams