I'm Don Juan's reckless daughter
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I came out two days on your tail
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Those two bald-headed days in November
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Before the first snowflakes sail
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Out on the vast and subtle plains of mystery
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A split tongue spirit talks
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Noble as a nickel chief
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Striking up an old juke box
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And he says:
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"Snakes along the railroad tracks."
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He says, "Eagles in jet trails..."
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He says, "Coils around feathers and talons on scales...
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Gravel under the belly plates..."
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He says, "Wind in the Wings..."
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He says, "Big bird dragging its tail in the dust...
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Snake kite flying on a string."
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I come from open prairie
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Given some wisdom and a lot of jive!
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Last night the ghosts of my old ideas
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Reran on channel five
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And it howled so spooky for its eagle soul
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I nearly broke down and cried
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But the split tongue spirit laughed at me
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He says, "Your serpent cannot be denied."
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Our serpents love the whisky bars
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They love the romance of the crime
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But didn't I see a neon sign
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Fester on your hotel blind
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And a country road come off the wall
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And swoop down at the crowd at the bar
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And put me at the top of your danger list
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Just for being so much like you are!
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You're a coward against the altitude-
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You're a coward against the flesh-
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Coward-caught between yes and no
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Reckless this time on the line for yes, yes, yes!
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Reckless brazen in the play
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Of your changing traffic lights
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Coward-slinking down the hall
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to another restless night
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As we center behind the eight ball
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As we rock between the sheets
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As we siphon the colored language
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Off the farms and the streets
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Here in Good-Old-God-Save-America
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the home of the brave and the free
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We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards
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Of some duality
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Of restless multiplicity
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(Oh say can you see)
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Restless for streets and honky tonks
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Restless for home and routine
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Restless for country-safety-and her
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Restless for the likes of reckless me
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Restless sweeps like fire and rain
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Over virgin wilderness
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It prowls like hookers and thieves
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Through bolt locked tenements
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Behind my bolt locked door
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The eagle and the serpent are at war in me
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The serpent fighting for blind desire
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The eagle for clarity
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What strange prizes these battles bring
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These hectic joys-these weary blues
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Puffed up and strutting when I think I win
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Down and shaken when I think I lose
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There are rivets up here in this eagle
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There are box cars down there on your snake
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And we are twins of spirit
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No matter which route home we take
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Or what we forsake
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We're going to come up to the eyes of clarity
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And we'll go down to the beads of guile
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There is danger and education
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In living out such a reckless life style
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I touched you on the central plains
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It was plane to train my twin
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It was just plane shadow to train shadow
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But to me it was skin to skin
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The spirit talks in spectrums
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He talks to mother earth to father sky
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Self indulgence to self denial
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Man to woman
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Scales to feathers
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You and I
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Eagles in the sky
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You and I
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Snakes in the grass
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You and I
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Crawl and fly
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You and I
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Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
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Joni Mitchell |