All Roads North

All roads north.
When the city gets loud,
I follow one star.
Same line.
Same hand.
Same cold.
Headlights cut
through the blacktop rain
City in the mirror
like a mouth
full of names
Phone turned off
No light in the glass
Just the hum
of the tires
and the ghost
of the past
I been too far
from the snow
and the pines
Too long walking
through another man's signs
Every street down south
got a soft hand grin
Every tall glass tower
got a throne built in
So I point that hood
where the compass pulls
Back to hard frost
and the old wolves' rules
North Star low
but it still knows me
All roads north
when I need to breathe
White lines pass
like a metronome
One more mile
toward the cold I know
If the world gets loud
and the soul gets torn
I follow one star
All roads north
All roads north
When the city gets loud
I follow one star
Through the smoke
and the crowd
All roads north
When my heart goes worn
I drive through the dark
Till the old cold warms
All roads north
Where the tether stays tight
Where the sky goes black
But the star stays bright
All roads north
All roads north
I lose the world
Then I come back yours
I don't call it home
like a postcard place
It ain't pretty up there
It don't soften its face
It got teeth
in the wind
It got ice
in the wire
It can kill what's weak
It can clean what's liar
I learned truth
where the whiteout screams
Stick together
or get buried in dreams
I learned silence
from the frozen lakes
I learned patience
from the long dark waits
Now the road hums low
like an old war prayer
And the Crown Inside
gets quiet up there
Metronome stepper
but the tires keep time
Every mile north
pulls the thorn
from my mind
White lines pass
like a metronome
One more mile
toward the cold I know
If the world gets loud
and the soul gets torn
I follow one star
All roads north
All roads north
When the city gets loud
I follow one star
Through the smoke
and the crowd
All roads north
When my heart goes worn
I drive through the dark
Till the old cold warms
All roads north
Where the tether stays tight
Where the sky goes black
But the star stays bright
All roads north
All roads north
I lose the world
Then I come back yours
Home is not soft.
Home is not safe.
Home is the place
that tells the truth.
The cold does
not flatter me.
The dark does
not fear me.
The North does
not need me.
That is why
I trust it.
Drive north
Breathe slow
White line
Black road
Cold sky
Old code
Rope tight
Don't fold
Drive north
Breathe slow
North Star
Still glows
All roads
All roads
All roads north
All roads north
When the city gets loud
I follow one star
Through the smoke
and the crowd
All roads north
When my heart goes worn
I drive through the dark
Till the old cold warms
All roads north
Where the tether stays tight
Where the sky goes black
But the star stays bright
All roads north
All roads north
I lose the world
Then I come back yours
No crown in the mirror.
No face in the frame.
Just one road.
One star.
All roads north.