Emerald - Dar Williams

I have gone to the west:

The emerald kingdom highway

It’s like a hero’s path I’m following

I don’t know what to think

What to do with myself today

Shouldn’t I hear the future calling me?

Under a low cloud

Vanishing up through the treeline of the mountain

Catching the light from the morning on a river come to life:

The grand Columbia

I’ve returned this time

Through these cascades in autumn

And for once, I am unquestioning

I can see the boatmen shout

Over the wind and engines

As the gold coins shower from aspen trees

And into the twilight

The hazy moon on the amethystine river

Watching the hair and lifting up

And her wings spread wide as the Columbia

Unbeknownst to my pride

I had filled my memories

With these hours of gold and emerald light

Now I plunge my hands

Into all this time I’ve lived

And the jewels spill through my fingers

I am back in the west

On this canyon highway

I can see a girl is passing

She is going so fast

I can hardly tell it’s me

Doesn’t she know that she’ll be traveling

Under a low cloud

Out of the northwest and through the Rocky Mountains

Across the prairies to the Appalachian

Rises now the Pennsylvania farms into the traffic of the eastern cities

Into my town, onto my street

Up the stairs, into my house

Grab the kids, and out the back into the garden