Full Flavour Behaviour!

a single drop of rain
21.ii.05

I was talking to a friend over the weekend about the Johnny Cash song, The Highwayman. With simple yet emotive lyrics Cash relates the story of a wayward spirit always driving for the very periphery of human experience. He crosses many different manifestations of the crazy outlaw character - highwayman, tall ship sailor, dam builder (on the particularly notorious Hoover dam project), starship explorer - but the essential drive for the harsh and lonely extremes is a constant; something that will "be back again.. and again.. and again.."

It is my humble opinion that there is a missing verse to this song. I almost thought the dam-builder stanza was a metaphorical version, what with the mention of the Colorado, but I have decided it is not. Here's a stab at it:

I was a writer. Seeking out a truth to tell
Recording sports and wars as well
I saw the hatred that defines how we must be
Saw men who bit and scratched from ball fields to D.C.
And when the drugs could no more cover up my hurt
Blew my mind into the dirt
But I live on in my words..

Hunter Thompson shot himself at his Colorado ranch last night at the age of 67. Show's over, folks.

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