The stories behind North Dakota - Prairie Wind

• Prairie Wind: North Dakota's Ballad of a Blizzard Service Call — North Dakota - Prairie Wind follows a biomedical technician driving a rural monitor repair through a winter storm.

Lyrics

Before dawn, I check the tire chains,

thermal case buckled in the passenger seat

A service call past the grain elevators where the county road

turns white beneath my feet

The monitor waits in a clinic hallway

It's green light blinkin' like a porch left on I carry spare

parts, coffee, and a promise

To get the little heartbeat machine back on

North Dakota, hold the road beneath me

Prairie wind push hard but let me through

From Bismarck north to a town with one red beacon

There's somebody counting on what I do

North Dakota, distance has a weather

But every mile can lead a person home I'll keep the cold

outside the engine Till the smallest room is breathing on its own

The radio says the pass is nearly closed now

Snow stacks high against the water tower gate I pull beneath the

volunteer fire station Three neighbors help me carry through the sleep

A nurse has warmed the broken cables

A farmer brings a lamp from his own shed

We test the leads beside the coffee maker and watch a steady trace

return instead

me Prairie wind push hard but let me through

From Bismarck North to a town with one red beacon

There's somebody counting on what I do

North Dakota, distance has a weather

But every mile can lead a person home I'll keep the cold

outside the engine Till the smallest room is

breathing on its own

My daughter sends a picture from the kitchen

A paper sun tape crooked to the glass I save it in the pocket

of my coveralls For every frozen mile I have to pass

The work is small beneath a giant sky

A screw, a wire, a signal made precise

But a town can turn its shoulders to the wind

And make a shelter out of ordinary lives

North Dakota morning finds me moving

Blue along the fields, white along the fence

The case is quiet, the clinic lights are burning

And the road gives back a little of what it takes

North Dakota distance has a weather

Still the hands we need can cross the snow I'll keep the cold

outside the engine Till the smallest room is

breathing on its own

At the edge of town, the wind lies down

A red taillight fades beyond the grain

North Dakota keeps its wide horizon

And I turn the heater toward home again