Jackie Skates - Janis Ian

Jackie skates across the freeway

Like a suicide in steel

Scatters ashes of her memory

To the wind behind the wheel

It’s the road that makes the rhythm

It’s the chalk marks on her soul

It’s the task that he’s been given

To keep her memory whole

She was younger than forever

She was older than goodbye

And she never saw the trucker

As he wove across the line

Just another L.A. drifter

With the freeway in her blood

And she never knew what hit her

When she ran right out of luck

It was Jackie called the parents

It was Jackie won the prize

It was Jackie fed the silence

When they could not meet his eyes

It was Jackie took the body

It was Jackie packed her stuff

And he never really loved her

Though he liked her well enough

Sometimes at night he sees her

From the corner of his eye

And he’s just about to tell her

That he has no alibi

It’s fate that makes the moment

That’s what he wants to cry

But the words he needs are frozen

He can’t even say goodbye

Jackie skates across the freeway

Like a suicide in steel

Scatters ashes of her memory

To the wind behind the wheel