Highway Homecomings

Stopped at the pumps

off Interstate Nine

To wash off the road dust and pass some time

Sitting by the door

in the gravel and grit

Was a yellow-haired stray

where the travelers sit

He looked up at me

with those tired old eyes

No collar, no home,

just the open skies

I bought him some meat

from the cold grocery aisle Left it right by his paws,

and he watched for a mile

Oh, the road is a long

and a lonely design

Just a white-striped ribbon

in the dark of the pine

But there's hope in the kindness we leave on the track

Even if we don't know

if we'll ever come back

Then winter came down

with the frost on the glass

I pulled to the station,

stepped onto the grass

But the corner was empty,

his bowl was gone

The clerk said a family

had taken him home (taken him home...)

Years rolled away

like the miles on my dial

I forgot the cold winter,

forgot for a while

Till I parked at that station,

decades down the line

And saw a gray muzzle

in the warm sunshine

There's a beautiful end

to a lonely design

Not everyone's left

in the dark of the pine

Yeah, there's love in the kindness

we leave on the track

And the warmth of the journey

is coming right back

He was resting his head in a little girl's hand

The happiest traveler in all of the land...

(good boy...)