rodeo wind

even as she sleeps

she feels his restless turning

as he struggles with an old dream all night long

and when she awakes

she turns to reassure him

she whispers to a shadow and finds him gone

way out in the barn a single lamp is burning

she faintly hears a radio play a sad old cowboy song

she watches as he takes

his old saddle from the wall

a sudden chill runs through her in the cold of the not quite dawn

she's losing him

to the rodeo wind

that blows through his soul

when the summer begins

when the winter snow falls

he'll come back again

but his heart always drifts

on the rodeo wind

one sure way to lose him

is to try and make him stay

he can't explain he don't even know himself

but the force that drew her to him

has just gotta break away

and the sound of the road and the rolling wheel

is the only thing that helps

now it all makes sense

those signs she's been seeing all along

she feels like such a fool

a woman ought to know

just the other day

she saw him sittin' on the south fence

throwing stones at prairie dogs

and staring down the road