joni mitchell
don juan's reckless daughter
I'm Don Juan's reckless daughter I came out two days on your tail Those two bald-headed days in November Before the first snowflakes sail Out on the vast and subtle plains of mystery A split tongue spirit talks Noble as a nickel chief Striking up an old juke box And he says: "Snakes along the railroad tracks." He says, "Eagles in jet trails ..." He says, "Coils around feathers and talons on scales ... Gravel under the belly plates ..." He says, "Wind in the Wings ..." He says, "Big bird dragging its tail in the dust ... Snake kite flying on a string." I come from open prairie Given some wisdom and a lot of jive! Last night the ghosts of my old ideas Reran on channel five And it howled so spooky for its eagle soul I nearly broke down and cried But the split tongue spirit laughed at me He says, "Your serpent cannot be denied." Our serpents love the whisky bars They love the romance of the crime But didn't I see a neon sign Fester on your hotel blind And a country road come off the wall And swoop down at the crowd at the bar And put me at the top of your danger list Just for being so much like you are! You're a coward against the altitude-- You're a coward against the flesh-- Coward--caught between yes and no Reckless this time on the line for yes, yes, yes! Reckless brazen in the play Of your changing traffic lights Coward--slinking down the hall to another restless night As we center behind the eight ball As we rock between the sheets As we siphon the colored language Off the farms and the streets Here in Good-Old-God-Save-America the home of the brave and the free We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards Of some duality Of restless multiplicity (Oh say can you see) Restless for streets and honky tonks Restless for home and routine Restless for country-safety-and her Restless for the likes of reckless me Restless sweeps like fire and rain Over virgin wilderness It prowls like hookers and thieves Through bolt locked tenements Behind my bolt locked door The eagle and the serpent are at war in me The serpent fighting for blind desire The eagle for clarity What strange prizes these battles bring These hectic joys-these weary blues Puffed up and strutting when I think I win Down and shaken when I think I lose There are rivets up here in this eagle There are box cars down there on your snake And we are twins of spirit No matter which route home we take Or what we forsake We're going to come up to the eyes of clarity And we'll go down to the beads of guile There is danger and education In living out such a reckless life style I touched you on the central plains It was plane to train my twin It was just plane shadow to train shadow But to me it was skin to skin The spirit talks in spectrums He talks to mother earth to father sky Self indulgence to self denial Man to woman Scales to feathers You and I Eagles in the sky You and I Snakes in the grass You and I Crawl and fly You and I.