I Am A Town

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

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 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.