Diane Cluck: The Turnaround Road

Cars, three-point turns make pentagrams in the dirt
At the end of the road where I sit in the morning
The weeks have been hazy but something is changing
I watched the sun convince the weakest cloud to let it through
It said "I would have gone crooked but for you"

There's a sticky orange vine here
And it grows over everything
I don't know what they call it
I call it 'Darling Creeper'
I give names to the flora and to the fauna
Most descriptive of their character to me

And theres snakes I have been warned about
Theres rattlers in this roundabout
They come in from the chaparral
They crawl beyond the gravel now
That I like it when I'm sitting with things around me moving
It may look like I'm brooding
Like I'm getting not much done

But oh! there is a cure here
The light is very pure here
I'm gathering my strength like a consumptive in the sun
And I would have gone crooked but for you, but for you
I would have gone crooked but for you
I would have gone crooked but for you, but for you
I would have gone crooked...

Some zen artist left
His red rock garden in the turnaround road where I sit in the morning
It gets kicked around the cul-de-sac
By those who go and double back
As if there is no thoroughfare in absence of a beaten track

And red ants are moving with their sick and withered comrades
They carry the bodies of the withered in their mouths
Because it is no big deal
Hey, what else is there to do
But set your sight on something and pull your tangles through
Oh I would have gone crooked but for you, but for you
I would have gone crooked but for you
Oh I would have gone crooked but for you, but for you
Oh I would have gone crooked
And I dont think I even knew before now

Hey I feel steady and I feel good
Light and emptied of last night's food
Theres a mountain ahead
When I'm ready to go up from the edge of the turnaround road

Cars three-point turns make mandalas in the dirt
At the end of the road where I sit in the morning
The weeks have been hazy but something is changing
I watched the sun convince the smallest cloud to let it through
It said "I would have gone crooked but for you"
I would have gone crooked but for you