The Mile

I dug this song out from an old folder, I wrote this when I was 18 years old. I got the idea for the song when walking to college one day and in that time my mind would just race away. It seemed like the perfect time to collect my thoughts and straighten (no gay jokes please) my head the journey in total took around half hour to walk. I remember racing back from college in storms and snow, I always loved walking in the rain there is something cleansing about it. The song was my opinions at the time. I can’t say they have changed much but have, perhaps matured. The chorus speaks about escaping the realities of life and hoping for peace, I’m not sure if at the time I had Heaven in mind when writing the song, but I hope that Heaven is just as peaceful as I imagine the mile to be.


Verse 1
The mile is a place which I invented in my mind,
Where flags of freedom freely wave to the lonely kin of time,
Where mistakes are left in the past, the people do not lie,
A home for both the rich and poor and money is no desire.
A long stretched out road where fields are to be fields
And never will be rearranged by some man made drill,
Where gays are accepted and blacks walk with the whites
And everyone is more than welcome to walk the mile.

Chorus
Do you know friends of mine
When you go home to your men and wives
I choose to walk the mile
When I get home there's an empty bed
There I'm the only one who's slept,
So I think I'll choose to stay here awhile.

Verse 2
Where there are certain words that no one dares to mention
Like murderer or outlaw or even the recession
Where heaven is the house next door, happiness is what we cry
And if I choose to shoot a man he'd just come back to life.
Where peace is what we'd sing and love is what we'd chant,
Blood is never spilled from the strength of our hands,
Time is kept well in balance cos it don't exist,
The mile's just too good a place for you to resist.

Chorus 2
Do you know friends of mine,
Whatever you do with your time,
I choose to walk the mile,
No one seems to wanna know
That for too long I've been alone
So I think I'll choose to stay here a mile.

Chorus 3
If you choose to spare a moment,
Come down to my second home and
You are free to roam the mile,
At this rate I'll die by myself,
I pray that I don't go to hell
Would you like some company a while
Or would you rather I walk the mile.

Karl Smitherman © 2008 published 2012