Telegraph Road

A long time ago come a man on a track
Walkin' thirty miles with a sack on his back
And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
Made a home in the wilderness

Built a cabin and a winter store
And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
The other travellers came walking down the track
They never went further, no, they never went back

Then came the churches, then came the schools
Then came the lawyers, then came the rules
Then came the trains and the trucks with their load
And the dirty old track was the telegraph road

Then came the mines, and then came the ore
Then there was the hard times, then there was a war
Telegraph sang a song about the world outside
The telegraph road got so deep and so wide like a rolling river

And my radio says, tonight it's gonna freeze
People drivin' home from the factories
Six lanes of traffic
Three lanes moving slow

Used to like to go to work but they shut it all down
I got a right to go to work, but there's no work here to be found
Yeah and they say we're gonna have to pay what's owed
We're gonna have to reap from some seed that's been sowed

When all the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles
They can always fly away from this rain and this cold
You can hear them singin' out in telegraph code
All the way down the telegraph road

And I'd sooner forget but I remember those nights
Yeah, life was just a bet on a race between the lights
You had your head on my shoulder, had your hand in my hair
Now you act a little colder like you don't seem care

But just believe in me baby, and I'll take you away
From of this darkness and into the day
From these rivers of headlights,these rivers of rain

From the anger that lives on the streets with these names
'Cause I've run every red light on memory lane
I've seen desperation explode into flames
And I don't wanna see it again

From all of these signs sayin', 'Sorry but we're closed'
All the way
Down the telegraph road.