I am a town

I'm a town in Carolina,
I'm 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.

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Mary Chapin Carpenter Lyrics
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Country Room
Front Door
Email: J3019@hotmail.com