You know you are lost on
the open freeway
when you start tapping the
steering wheel to the beat
“If you can’t find a friend
You still got the radio-o”
It’s all about a car
with stereo speakers
And driving along with
Nanci Griffith singing her
gratitude to Loretta Lynn.

With the wind whipping your hair
the car drifts a bit
You twitch the wheel
And keep on,
Now singing your own thanks
for the songs the women wrote
about choosing Freedom
and getting up and leaving
Watching the falling-down
two-story frame house
recede in the rear view mirror
and, along with it,
the tiny drunken figure
sleeping it off on the couch.

— Ellen A. Wilkin
Remembering hitting the highway with “Listen to the Radio” by Nanci Griffith on the stereo