24,000 Square Miles in Texas

I’ve been spending a lot of time lost in Hill Country
Intentionally lost
Driving west on roads with no yellow line
In a car that smells of black coffee and tobacco juice.

Marty Robbins sings about a Doggone Cowboy:
I got no home, I got no wife,
But I'll be a doggone cowboy all of my life.

And Willie sings about Something You Get Through:
It's not somethin' you get over,
But it's somethin' you get through.

And a Rhodes Scholar asks, Why Me:
Lord, help me, Jesus,
I've wasted it so.

24,000 square miles of consonance
24,000 square miles of indescribable beauty
24,000 square miles of questions
24,000 square miles of no answers
24,000 square miles of regret
24,000 square miles of pain
24,000 square miles of loss
24,000 square miles of tears
24,000 square miles of unanswered prayers

*Composed, Edited, and Published in Austin, TX