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lyrics

This Town That

In this town, banana-seat bikes leaning up against loggers’ cabins –
shingle-siding painted sapphire, mustard, sage
moss grows thick on roofs
 
 In that town, streamers, clackers
bikes with just one gear
kids waiting ‘til dusk to play hango-seek
hiding behind parked cars, in neighbour’s yards
scurrying around 100-year-old maple trees like squirrels
 
In this town, a fire station, a butcher shop where hunters bring fresh kill
a trailer-park down by the water nestled in a valley
ringed by peaks that remember indigenous names

 In that town tucked in a city named for trees
standing in water
an Italian bakery, a greengrocer, a corner store
– candy three a penny, five a penny

In this town, a green Boler trailer under plastic wraps
tyres gone flat
indoor chairs ring an outdoor fire pit
a budding of beer cans on brown lawn
gypsy-inspired music from behind a ten-foot cedar hedge

 In that town, a schoolyard
where we’d play Seven-Up against a brick wall
old tennis ball
badminton under a canopy of leaves
a verandah for listening to thunder 

In this town, a felled lot
swallows swooping over corpses of lodgepole pine
the rumbling dust of logging trucks
a caravan of campers
travelling to somewhere just past
the next bend in the road
 
In that town, knowing which doorbell to ring
for trick or treat
the singsong voice of the lady next door
calling to her kids in Greek –
“Yanni, Elena, Elado!”

In this town, no fences
no bike helmets
a dog on the lap of a kid on a gyrating swing

If I were to wait ‘til dusk
would they come running out of these houses –
amethyst, mustard, royal blue
calling out Ollie Ollie Oxen Free?
 
this town, that

credits

from The Cowichan Series, released June 1, 2019

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Jim Jackson Calgary, Alberta

Jim Jackson is a Calgary Herald bestselling author, reluctant gentleman and dabbler in the dark arts of blues music. Jim’s mission is to give – in these troubled times – intelligent escapism for modern readers and listeners.

Find out more at jacksontron.com ... more

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