"Not Yet..."

"Not Yet..." (2026) Lyrics by J. Widener with AI-assisted music Wichita Falls in the rearview haze Louisiana rain for days and days Running on the fumes, running out the night New Orleans waiting by the dockside lights Atchafalaya stretch black and wide Then two headlights cross the other side Two pickups bursting in a flare of chrome And suddenly nobody's going home Smoke rising up from the trailer tires Red lights bleeding through the roadside pines Long hood hiding what I fear might be Lost in the rain and the blacktop steam Something turning slow in the driving rain Half in this world, Half out of the lane I locked the brakes and I felt her slide Waiting for the sound from under the ride Hands gone numb on the steering wheel Everything suddenly too real I hit the brakes too hard and fast Certain that I'd already rode right past But she lay still in the sodium glow While the old man whispered soft and low "Mama, wake..." Smoke drifting off from the burning tires Red lights bleeding through the roadside pines Long hood hiding what I couldn't see Just twenty feet between her and me The family pulled apart in the driving rain Some things leave and don't explain This young man dressed sharp in the rain Holding her hand like he knows her name Calm as the river, still as the flood Clean black shoes in the roadside mud I asked if we'd met somewhere before He said, "Not yet," like he'd said it before We're all just sparks in the highway dark Trying to outrun what leaves its mark A daughter came stumbling up through the rain Calling their names again and again Words so broken they came undone "My Daddy, my Husband, my oldest Son..." I turned toward my trailer, blocking the lane Engine idling softly through the rain Looked back once through the flashing blue The man in the suit had slipped from view Smoke fading out from the skidding tires Red lights bleeding through the roadside pines Long hood hiding what I couldn't see Sometimes "not yet" is all it gives me A voice in the Louisiana rain Calling me back through the sound of my name New Orleans waiting Dock lights glow But part of me stayed there Down below "Not yet..." "Not yet..."