Mile Marker 183

So I can't visit my folks without passing the road my ex tried to kill me on. It's a reminder I don't have to deal with now that I live a couple hours away, but it still hits me when I drive past and I can't help remembering. So like with other things that try to destroy me, I combat it by creating something. In this case, I wrote a song... it was very Sarah McLachlan in tune.

Mile Marker 183
Lindsay Archer

Standing at the Crossroads of Music Row and Memory Lane
Remembering the chill of a burnt out old flame
staring at the wreckage that to this day remains
A head to head collision won’t leave you the same
When you encounter a pile up of the criminally insane
Standing at the Crossroads of Music Row and Memory Lane

He gritted his teeth and gripped the wheel
His foot hit the gas and the rubber peeled
down this old country blacktop street
toward a wicked curve of near 90 degrees
On the other side all I could see
was the interstate’s mile marker 183
That’s when I realized it was death staring at me
as the speedometer buried somewhere near 90
It was my life at stake and him at the wheel
If he couldn’t have me, then my life he would steal
I’d be free of him, even with my last breath, I swore
At least I wouldn’t have to live in fear anymore

Standing at the Crossroads of Music Row and Memory Lane
Remembering the chill of a burnt out old flame
staring at the wreckage that to this day remains
A head to head collision won’t leave you the same
When you encounter a pile up of the criminally insane
Standing at the Crossroads of Music Row and Memory Lane

He curved to the left and couldn’t believe
that I was more angry and ready to leave
This torturous game of predator and prey
I could never gain, only lose more each day
That’s when crocodile tears formed in his eye
His frequent trick to avoid caught in a lie
That’s when I realized it was death staring at me
On the other side of mile marker 183
There was no way he’d ever let me leave
The passing of freedom, which I still grieve
Left cleaning up the mess that he made
and his deep debt that can never be paid.

Standing at the Crossroads of Music Row and Memory Lane
Remembering the chill of a burnt out old flame
staring at the wreckage that to this day remains
A head to head collision won’t leave you the same
When you encounter a pile up of the criminally insane
Standing at the Crossroads of Music Row and Memory Lane

Now I’m exhausted and all I want is to sleep
But slumber since has not been deep
Would that I could, finally find rest,
so rare in this world, even at my best.
If only it were just him, but that’s a far cry
There many like him, both girl and guy
That’s when I realized it was death staring at me
Well, beyond mile marker 183
In the dirty looks and the judging eyes
of those whose life has never capsized.
Reopening old wounds that can never quite heal
At the hands of people who can’t know how it feels

Standing at the Crossroads of Music Row and Memory Lane
Remembering the chill of a burnt out old flame
staring at the wreckage that to this day remains
A head to head collision won’t leave you the same
When you encounter a pile up of the criminally insane
Standing at the Crossroads of Music Row and Memory Lane



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