I have a pretty distinct image in my mind of what is happening in this song.
I think what happened is the narrator was driving one day and hit a deer; the deer gets horribly mangled but isn't dead right away. The narrator is so shocked and disturbed she can't bear to run over it again to put it out of its misery. She calls the cops and then walks onto the shoulder of the road and starts digging a grave for the deer. After a few minutes she sees a cop car coming and goes back in her car. There is a sense of relief with the cop's arrival because they will shoot the deer to put it out of its misery (they're getting closer/just get inside/it's almost over).
The majority of the song is talking about the aftermath and its effects on the narrator. She feels awful about killing an innocent animal and allowing it to suffer for so long. She starts thinking a lot about mankind's detrimental effects on wildlife, and starts wondering if she should change her lifestyle to do her part to minimize those effects. But she justifies her continued use of a vehicle by saying she "has to drive." In this day and age, how does one survive without driving? It's not possible, she tells herself (I have to drive/I have my reasons, deer; you learn to drive/it's only natural, deer). The truth is that it is possible, it's just inconvenient, and she knows this deep down and the selfishness of it is eating her up (fighting the jury in my head). Finally she acknowledges that the choice to drive IS a choice, not a necessity, and that it is a selfish choice but she's going to choose it anyway, because in the end she values her lifestyle more than the lives of a few animals (it is a delicate position/spin the bottle/pick the victim - she could volunteer to be the "victim" by giving up her lifestyle, or she could continue to drive and pick wildlife and nature to be the "victim"). Finally she is tired of agonizing over the issue and feeling anxious every time she's behind the wheel, so she decides to simply put it out of her mind (forgetting everything we saw). The last lines (meet me in an hour/at the car) are important because it shows how the narrator is moving on with her life; she didn't want to give up the ability to just hop in the car and meet up with someone in an hour's time, so she shoves her guilt to the back of her mind and continues to drive.
I have a pretty distinct image in my mind of what is happening in this song.
I think what happened is the narrator was driving one day and hit a deer; the deer gets horribly mangled but isn't dead right away. The narrator is so shocked and disturbed she can't bear to run over it again to put it out of its misery. She calls the cops and then walks onto the shoulder of the road and starts digging a grave for the deer. After a few minutes she sees a cop car coming and goes back in her car. There is a sense of relief with the cop's arrival because they will shoot the deer to put it out of its misery (they're getting closer/just get inside/it's almost over).
The majority of the song is talking about the aftermath and its effects on the narrator. She feels awful about killing an innocent animal and allowing it to suffer for so long. She starts thinking a lot about mankind's detrimental effects on wildlife, and starts wondering if she should change her lifestyle to do her part to minimize those effects. But she justifies her continued use of a vehicle by saying she "has to drive." In this day and age, how does one survive without driving? It's not possible, she tells herself (I have to drive/I have my reasons, deer; you learn to drive/it's only natural, deer). The truth is that it is possible, it's just inconvenient, and she knows this deep down and the selfishness of it is eating her up (fighting the jury in my head). Finally she acknowledges that the choice to drive IS a choice, not a necessity, and that it is a selfish choice but she's going to choose it anyway, because in the end she values her lifestyle more than the lives of a few animals (it is a delicate position/spin the bottle/pick the victim - she could volunteer to be the "victim" by giving up her lifestyle, or she could continue to drive and pick wildlife and nature to be the "victim"). Finally she is tired of agonizing over the issue and feeling anxious every time she's behind the wheel, so she decides to simply put it out of her mind (forgetting everything we saw). The last lines (meet me in an hour/at the car) are important because it shows how the narrator is moving on with her life; she didn't want to give up the ability to just hop in the car and meet up with someone in an hour's time, so she shoves her guilt to the back of her mind and continues to drive.