South

Cassandra's got half a duffel bag full
With shit she don't need
Or can't use
Or don't work
Jeans riding low
Stupidass shoes that kill her feet
Two eggs for breakfast
Probably all she's gonna eat for the next week
And twenty-seven dollars
To--her--name

And she says she's goin' South
Goin' South where, honey? --I say
She's so clever, so damn clever
Just like her mama was
And I tell her--
Your mama clever-ed herself
Right in front of a train
Catching one of her heels on the tracks
Just like the heels you're wearing, Cassandra

But she don't wanna hear about her mother
My sister, the prettiest girl anybody ever knew
She just wants to travel and travel away
And she keeps saying South
Like South is a place instead of a direction
And when I tell her that she says--
'A direction's just what I need actually.
I don't think I'll be needing a place.'

I tell her everybody's gotta have a place
Some place in this world they belong
But what I don't say is that I agree with her
When she says she don't belong here
Nothing but old tires on the side of the road
And signs with the paint worn off
Birds dropping out of the sky already dead
Because it's so damn hot

But I don't know how much further South she can go
Unless she plans on walking into the ocean
Becoming a pile of seaweed
Or a jellyfish
Or a mermaid

She don't pay me any mind though
Just keeps walking while I drive alongside her
Asking her if she thinks I'll run out of gas
Before she gets tired
Or will it be the other way around?

She says it ain't about grudges or hard feelings
Although we know the two of us have plenty of each
She says it's just about knowing if you're a mover or a stayer
And she says she ain't no stayer

So I turn the car around
And head home
And explain to my wife
That she don't have to keep buying those candy crickets
Cassandra likes so much

I can tell she's mad that I couldn't stop her
But something in me couldn't bear to look at my neice
And tell her she was wrong
Tell her she was meant for staying

If you can be a mover in this world
You should move

Staying has its good parts
But movers got a task to do
Even if they don't know what it is
And the best thing God can give you
Is something to do with yourself

So I let her go South
And I suspect right about now
She's reached the ocean
And she's kicking off those shoes
And she's looking at a picture of her mama

The one she took holding Cassandra
When she was a baby
Right before she handed her to me
And said she had to get on with it

Get on with it, she said
And then she was gone
And who knows how far she would have gotten
If she had worn sensible shoes

Cassandra'll probably put the photo down in the sand
And wade slowly into that water
Letting the cold creep up her ankles
Like a thousand spiders

Or maybe she'll do what I imagine her doing
And that's walking a few feet in
Taking a deep breath

And diving into that water
Headfirst

Letting everybody know
There's a new mermaid in town