The Beaten Road
Channel: Erika Dreyer
Date: 2012-03-29

The Beaten Road: 


Hey
Let me tell you about a time that I walked down a beaten road
I asked him, hey man what's got you down?
Cause I've never seen a lane that looked like it needed some liquor more
But you could swallow up a storm and still be a little worse for wear
And he sighed 
He told me, kid, I've been laid down so low that I've busted up the burrows of life underground and they're threatening to sue me for trespassing
I've been invaded by earthworms massing under my stones to try and find my darkest places
He said, I've been put down and walked all over since before I can remember, and sometimes I feel a little lost
This beaten road had been paved with hopes and dreams of greener pastures and better times, but when a hundred thousand feet padded down this pathway only to realize that they had been misled by a wrongly labled roadsign
 someone finally had the decency to fix the flaw and now the foot traffic has waned to just the wanderers who don't have a destination
To some people who can't find the motivation
To move on to greener pastures and better times
And I've been walking a while. 
I found this beaten road and all I could think of was how to make him smile
So I said to him
You've got a nice set of stones
If you've never heard a road laugh it's something else
Like a rumble that you can't quite hear but know you felt
Even a beaten down road deserves to feel like somebody cares about him
So I set my sights on a bend in his way and planted my feet firmly in the ground
I don't really have a place I'm heading to
There are no greener pastures or better times in my life so I might as well stay and give an old road some company
He seemed happy at that and told me I could walk with him for as far as he could go because a beaten road isn't just a destination, he's a journey that never quite ends or begins
He can take you to places you were looking for, or maybe not
Maybe he won't even take you to a place you want to be but on this beaten road is where you will find me, keeping the company of someone who forgot what it was like to smile
Because I've been walking a while
I've seen the greener pastures and passed by the better times and I may not know exactly how I got here, but the means to my end is more than a beaten road so I might as well keep walking
Because roads don't end just because you consider stopping