Richmond

2:30 a.m. in this airless apartment
Beaten down, to be condemned
Hot summer wind sigh, cry on my shoulder
Join me alone again

Richmond, Virginia – 25 hours
I-10 through the south, left at the bay
I packed up my pick-up, embraced independence
And unlinked the family chains

Driving to D.C., driven to excess
Fulfilling those guiltless extremes
The solstice days drag on with unlaced abandon
The nights fly in fiery dreams

For the ache of a heart and the love of a boy
Whose heart wasn’t aching for mine
Can I break from these patterns
The traps and the tatters
To rescue some of what was mine

We run around town, drive up to the Bottoms
And wait while the winos ask us for booze
We all hunger for more than we’re willing to give
But I’m finding it hard to refuse

We seek to define a love by design
Which fits our whims and our curves
I thought I’d found something, enough to get by
Without getting lost or burned

But in this airless apartment in the last days of August
You’re just not enough to get by
In a place where I’m losing the will to believe
I can rescue some of what was mine

With the days growing shorter, I’ll wade through each one
And survive in defiance until
I can pack up my pick-up, cast off independence
And head for friendlier hills

So free me from summer, free me from love
Let this fractured dream fall aside
I’ll break from these patterns
The traps and the tatters
To rescue some of what was mine

3:30 a.m. in this airless apartment
So still in the dead of this night
Hot summer wind come, blow through my window
Carry me home at first light