I Am A Town

This wonderful song by Mary Chapin Carpenter is about all the small towns that we once knew that now are dying or changing beyond recognition.  We flee from them, remember them, hope to find them again as imagined, and miss them when they disappear.  They are hopes and dreams both fulfilled or dashed.

So next week take this tune and tell a story about one of your cities or towns.  Don't forget to sign Mr. Linky down below so others can find you.




I'm a town in Carolina, a detour on a ride
For a phone call and a soda, I'm a blur from the driver's side
I'm the last gas for an hour if you're going twenty-five
I am Texaco and tobacco, I am dust you leave behind
I am peaches in September, and corn from a roadside stall
I'm the language of the natives, I'm a cadence and a drawl

I'm the pines behind the graveyard, and the cool beneath their shade,
where the boys have left their beer cans
I am weeds between the graves.
My porches sag and lean with old black men and children
Their sleep is filled with dreams, I never can fulfill them
I am a town.

I am a church beside the highway where the ditches never drain
I'm a Baptist like my daddy, and Jesus knows my name
I am memory and stillness, I am lonely in old age;
I am not your destination
I am clinging to my ways
I am a town.

I'm a town in Carolina, I am billboards in the fields
I'm an old truck up on cinder blocks, missing all my wheels
I am Pabst Blue Ribbon, American, and "Southern Serves the South"
I am tucked behind the Jaycees sign, on the rural route
I am a town
I am a town
I am a town
Southbound.





This meme also works well for Lady Java's Music Monday.  Come join Music Monday and share your songs. You can grab this code at LadyJava's Lounge