Telegraph Road

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A long time ago came a man on a track 
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walking thirty miles with a sack on his back 
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and he put down his load where he thought it was the best 
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he made a home in the wilderness 
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he built a cabin and a winter store 
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and he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore 
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and the other travellers came riding down the track 
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and they never went further and they never went back 
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then came the churches then came the schools 
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then came the lawyers then came the rules 
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then came the trains and the trucks with their loads 
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and the dirty old track   was the telegraph road 
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Then came the mines - then came the ore 
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then there was the hard times then there was a   war 
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telegraph sang a song about the world outside 
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telegraph road got so deep and so wide 
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like a rolling river. . . 

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     And my radio says tonight it's gonna freeze 
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people driving home from the factories 
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there's six lanes of traffic 
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     three lanes moving slow. . . 

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   I used to like to go to work but they shut it down 
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   I've got a right to go to work but there's no work here to be found 
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   yes and they say we're gonna have to pay what's owed 
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   we're gonna have to reap from seed that's been sowed 
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   and the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles 
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   they can always fly away from this rain and this cold 
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   you can here them singing out their telegraph code 
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   all the way down the telegraph road 

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   You know I'd sooner forget but I remember those nights 
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   when life was just a bet on a race between the lights 
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   you had your head on my shoulder you had your hand in my hair 
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   now you act a little colder like you don't seem to care 
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   but believe in me baby and I'll take you away 
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   from out of this darkness and into the day 
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   from these rivers of headlights these rivers of rain 
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   from the anger that lives on the streets with these names 
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   'cos I've run every red light on memory lane 
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   I've seen desperation explode into flames 
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   and I don't want to see it again. . . 
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   From all of these signs saying sorry but we're closed 
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   all the way