Setup
We were driving down to Austin with nothing left to talk about
We hadn’t seen a restaurant in eight hundred miles
I needed coffee and you gave a monologue
You talked my ear off and I tried to smile.
Oh how I loved how you talked
(how did I love how you talked)
we were a joke and I was the set up
you liked the buildup but I got fed up;
we were a joke and you were the punchline
your sense of humor is different from mine
Your grandma was friends with world famous outlaws
And your grandpa was a ranch-hand who never saw the sea
Their offspring were drunks and writers and cowards
Who ridiculed anyone who ever tried to leave
They make fun of your uncle, who went to New York City,
and gave birth to your cousin, the lawyer in Boston
I learned about his practice and his puppy and apartment
as we drove from Oklahoma overnight to Austin
Texas is bigger than anyone gives it credit for
and your mouth is bigger than anyone I know—
The words rolled on like the north Texas highway
eight hours behind me and eight left to go.