Mary Chapin Carpenter - I Am a Town

I’m a town in carolina, I’m a detour on a ride
For aphone 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 thelanguage 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 abaptist 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.