Homecoming (Walter’s Song) Vienna Teng

It's desert ice outside, but this diner has thawed my ears
Hot coffee in a clean white mug and a smile when the waitress hears
That I was born in North Carolina
Not an hour from her home town
And we used to play the same pizza parlor pinball

And there's a glance in time suspended as I wonder how it is
We've been swept up just by circumstance to where the coyote lives
Where my days are strips of highway
And she's wiping tables down
Holding on and still waiting for that windfall

But I've come home
Even though I've never had so far to go
I've come home

I pay the check and leave the change from a crumpled ten-dollar bill
Head across the street where VACANCY is burning in neon still
Well, the night eats up my body heat
And there's no sign of another
And I find myself slipping down into that black

But things are good, I've got a lot of followers of my faith
I've got a whole congregation living in my head these days
And I'm preaching from the pulpit
To cries of, "Amen brother"
Closing my eyes to feel the warmth come back