slow down—hey, slow down:
         I cannot believe
         and the Texas sky is a cavity

a secondhand car for a secondhand heart
         when it gets dusty cold
         once a year down here

slow down—hey, slow down:
         don't you know I don't know
         how to breathe

the old pickup truck towns
         gas stations closed for decades
         main street brick banks

slow down—hey, slow down:
         don't you know
         I don't know how to move

the money, like the satin white
         comfort of the moon,
         is gone again

slow down—hey, slow down:
         don't you know
         I don't know how to believe

and the faded jeans sit looser
         on the haggard body
         when the sun comes too soon

please, slow down—hey, please:
         I am a man, and I
         can only walk

when the people, in their
         kind, person people way,
         when they go along with it all

and I just want this earth
         to slow down,
         want a town to stay beneath my feet

want the words to stay in my mouth
         and the love to stay
         on your lips

the God I came to believe in once
         in the west desert
         to stay in my soul