Safer in the Forest / Love Song for Poor Michigan

I've been watching a slow thaw come around
I've been waiting in the cold and hazy blue
I've been driving alone out to the edge of town
I've been thinking too much of you

Last snowfall left splinters and
Some winters never end, neither wane nor wear
And sunshine is like lovers and
Some summers just pretend, only warm the air
It's that I'm tired of the feeling here
It's too near to death, it's too jobless year-round
It's not the weather in the city or the highway moan
Not the streets or the buildings, neither wooden nor stone
Every reason to leave this place behind
Why I should be alone are made of flesh and bone

I've been thinking of exile
I've been thinking hit the highway and head up North
I've been thinking cross the bridge and don't turn back
The only warmth is a warmth alone

He packed up
Took 75 northbound to a brand new life and
Waved goodbye to the world in the rear-view mirror
Saw it clearer in hindsight
The shape of its skyline traced in a flame from the windows ablaze
The people restless and the streetlights glowing
Like many beacons in the sea or like a lantern lit
For the ones still lost out in the dead of the night
Like lightning striking darkness once
No thunder, no pain

Have you ever watched a slow thaw come around?
Have you waited in the cold and hazy blue?
There's an airport there out near the edge of town
I've been thinking too much of you

Settled in that still forest like
Another phantom or another shadow cast
By choice, a noiseless chorus blows
Through the leaves and trees and brings a peace at last
From a place where the song kept changing just
When he was starting to get it, when he was starting to trust
There'd be a day he'd find a way to keep the rust at-bay
There'd be a day he'd find a hum to help him muffle the past
Like thunder underwater, he hears it fading
And feels no pain at all

To a boring, desperate city
It's been weeks since I've been around you
Has the fear begun to fade away like sunlight when it sinks into the lake?
Are they now building up, or breaking down and boarding up the fronts?
Has the whole town been foreclosed now?
And what happened to those youthful
Dreams sunk deep in the river weak? Or got tangled up in weeds or
Else they're stumbling drunk on Wealthy Street?
Or making plans to leave?
I need to leave. I can't marry this place
I won't bury the past. I just need a change of scenery
I will hold these old streets sweetly in my head like
Her. And I will praise their bravery always till the end
Let tongues confess the plague of joblessness a temporary illness
Let us wave their flag from there to here and then over and again and
Let us hope for better things though we may not ever get them
We will rise again from ashes one day
Until then roll, just roll, roll me away
I need to leave but swear I will carry you in me until the end
So, Tuebor, my home!
Your desperate friend