From the recording Dukkha's Nemesis

The lyrics to The Last Tollgate came to me while literally "speeding down the highway" from Bangor to Portland, Maine. The mile markers flying by (relatively, ask Einstein) popped into a set of song lyrics. They were just too natural a metaphor for Time flying by, that old concept that wends its sorry-ass way through many songs on this CD. The theme fit my life well at the time: in my forties, worried that I was eating up all my time at a travelling sales job that never felt very comfortable, and bummed that I wasn't spending more time on music and the other arts I love. Silly, in retrospect, because we all do what we "need to" in order to get to the things we "want to", so why sweat it so much? But sweat it I did at the time. The cool thing is, when working on "Dukkha's" with my son, James, the trumpet/arranger genius, he started playing an arrangement of music he'd composed about the same time I separately wrote my Tollgate lyrics. "Got any lyrics for this, Mom?" "Yup - I think it's perfect for these lyrics...". So, The Last Tollgate just snapped together, like that!

Lyrics

Speedin down the highway
Mile 199
Travelin at the speed of light
Waste no time
Can't drive within the limits
Way too much to do
Got a speeding ticket
At 1-6-2
Seems like every time
I'm on my way
Gotta hit the brakes
Got a toll to pay
 
Got to make up lost time
To get nowhere fast
Every time I race that clock
I seem to come in last
Even if I get somewhere
I'm not too sure
I'll remember what it is
I came here for
 
Seems like every time I'm on my way
Gotta hit the brakes
Got a toll to pay
 
No time while driving so fast
To stop and kiss the ground
Can't remember where I been
Better slow me down
I'm running out of highway
At Mile 2-8
Hope I got enough left
For the Last Tollgate
 
Seems like every time
I'm on my way
Gotta hit the brakes
I got a toll to pay!
 
(c) 2008 Patty Morris