Black Rose
© 1999 Jim Rivers
Real Audio sample (35 sec)
 

Wait for me when the sun goes down 
And we'll soon be free from this dirty old town 

We'll be miles away before our feet hit the ground 
And we're not coming back, they just kick us around 
What makes a man leave his home and his friends? 
Follow his heart and start over again? 

No one knows 
My black rose 

Stars shine bright in your eyes tonight 
The engine moans as the road unwinds 

With your face in the breeze and your hair blowing back 
Two highway heroes begin the attack 
Town after town they all say the same 
But their voices drown when I whisper the name 

No one knows 
My black rose

~

A rock song about leaving it all behind for a lover from the wrong side of town.

We put a few things together and just took off. For the first time in my life I didn't have a plan and I didn't want one. The price would be paid later but right or wrong I need to be free just once. She was wild from the start and had nothing to lose. Leaving the sun to sink on that town full of carpers and nosey busybodies we pressed through the envelope of smog on the outskirts and headed into the deepening night and the frightening freedom of the open road. We were trading one kind of security for another but it was hard to be sorry with the wind begging us on and the past falling quickly behind.

We made many stops along the way. Bathing in a stream in the soft morning rain the forest raised no objection to our intrusion. Glowing in the light of a small fire on the rocky heights above the desert floor brought no cries of protest. Yet we seemed to bear some mark of condescension in the towns peppering the silver trail between  nowhere and everywhere.Well, as long as we kept going that would be their problem.

Eventually we settled down on the outskirts of a sleepy Midwest town. Settling down nearly drove us crazy. But that's another story.