Caffeinated Warriors

I settle in rooms
Permeated by the stories of a million strangers
Their ghosts dwell in the fixtures and the walls
And they disappear like the mist
As it rises off the highway
Where nights are too quiet and too loud

And they tug at your dreams in the middle of the day
Saying the devil you know might be better than the devil that you don't know
The stage lights and the miles will never show
But the riches I bring you are nothing, mere trinkets
Mere currency between strangers
And if you ever loved me you will let me go

So goodbye Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
And all you intrepid wanderers
Goodbye Amelia and Hemingway
You broken-hearted explorers
Goodbye Joan of Arc
And all you caffeinated warriors
Goodbye, goodbye to you

I charted my course
Through fields of unfinished cathedrals
To the pulsing heady calling of the southern cross
I watched it pour like a flood
On the surface of lake Erie
Been talking to my GPS, I've been talking to God

I suspect it may be written in my blood
But these castles of sand cannot stand beyond the winter
And the crow flies in the trail of Evangeline
Maybe we wore our hearts too freely
On the nights when we were touted
On the marquees of that fleeting drop of time

So goodbye Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
And all you intrepid wanderers
Goodbye Amelia and Hemingway
You broken-hearted explorers
Goodbye Joan of Arc
And all you caffeinated warriors
Goodbye, goodbye to you

So goodbye Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
And all you intrepid wanderers
Goodbye Amelia and Hemingway
You broken-hearted explorers
Goodbye Joan of Arc
And all you caffeinated warriors
Goodbye, goodbye to you

So goodbye Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
And all you intrepid travelers
Goodbye Virginia & Woody Guthrie
You weary unravelers
Goodbye Townes Van Zandt
You damned and dogged ramblers
Goodbye, goodbye to you

Goodbye Hank Williams
And you damned and empty handed gamblers
Goodbye, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye