<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Ghost Road Song <br class=""><font size="3" class=""><i class="">for my father, 11/19/1927 – 6/27/2009</i></font><br class=""><br class="">I need a song.<br class="">I need a song like a river, cool and dark and wet,<br class="">like a battered old oak; gnarled bark,<br class="">bitter acorns,<br class="">a song like a dragonfly:<br class="">shimmer - hover - swerve -<br class="">like embers, too hot to touch.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song like my father’s hands:<br class="">scarred, callused, blunt,<br class="">a song like a wheel,<br class="">like June rain, seep of solstice,<br class="">tang of waking earth.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song like a seed:<br class="">a hard and shiny promise,<br class="">a song like ashes:<br class="">gritty, fine, scattered;<br class="">a song like abalone, tough as stone,<br class="">smooth as a ripple at the edge of the bay.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song so soft, it won’t sting my wounds,<br class="">so true, no anger can blunt it,<br class="">so deep, no one can mine it.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song with a heart wrapped in barbed wire.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song that sheds no tears,<br class="">I need a song that sobs.<br class="">I need a song that skates along the edge of black ice,<br class="">howls with coyotes,<br class="">a song with a good set of lungs,<br class="">a song that won’t give out, give up,<br class="">give in, give way:<br class="">I need a song with guts.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song like lightning, just one blaze of insight.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song like a hurricane,<br class="">spiraled winds of chaos,<br class="">a snake-charming song,<br class="">a bullshit-busting song,<br class="">a shut-up-and-listen-to-the-Creator song.<br class="">I need a song that rears its head up like a granite peak<br class="">and greets the eastern sky.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song small enough to fit in my pocket,<br class="">big enough to wrap around<br class="">the wide shoulders of my grief,<br class="">a song with a melody like thunder,<br class="">chords that won’t get lost,<br class="">rhythm that can’t steal away.<br class="">I need a song that forgives me my lack of voice.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song that forgives my lack of forgiveness.<br class=""><br class="">I need a song so right<br class="">that the first note splinters me like crystal,<br class="">spits the shards out into the universe<br class="">like sleek seedlings of stars; yes,<br class="">that’s the song<br class="">I need, </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class="">the song to accompany you<br class="">on your first steps<br class="">along the Milky Way,<br class="">that song with ragged edges,<br class="">a worn-out sun;<br class="">the song that lets a burnt red rim<br class="">slip away into the Pacific,<br class="">leaves my throat<br class="">healed at last.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Deborah Miranda</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></body></html>