Town Out of Time

[good4somethingbum]

Town Out of TimePulled off a lonely exit…drove south of I-1012 miles down a washboard road to visit granpa againThe city limit sign’s a longhorn skull by a wagon wheelSaw granpa fightin’ a plow mule in a rocky fieldThat town boomed up around a nearby silver mineGranpa’s dad moved there ‘fore it collapsed in ‘09They say renegade Apaches rode from the hills n plainsSabotagin’ companies layin’ rail for the trainsNear the town out of time,That tomorrow left behindDoc Hazzlet’s shingle swayin’ in the honeysuckle breezeMayor’s hammock hung between two hickory treesIn the town out of timeWe had goulash with the widow of Farmer JohnTook lotsa homebrew to wash down her goat cheese parmesanThen I poked around his cabin and found granpa’s mandolinI play a little squeezebox and we sang some Baptist hymnsThen he chased me from a box with his wooden crutchSaid there were sticks of TNT touchy about bein’ touchedHe passed me a jug and pipe and said ten miles awayThey were already nailin’ lumber for some coffee caféNear the town out of timeThat tomorrow left behindOl’ sheriff sleepin’ off a drunk on a cot in his jailDraft blew the door shut and locked him in that cellIn the town out of timeGranpa said when shadows fall and stars have a silver shineHe can hear his father moanin’ in that haunted mineAnd I don’t know what was in that pipe and dusty jugBut they laid me out flat as an old bear rugI woke up later and my poor head began to poundWay off in the distance I heard a wicked soundGranpa took some sticks and stole off by the moonHe loves his boomtown how it is and that café went ”boom”Near the town out of timeThat tomorrow left behindRather than get his tooth pulled by some big city quackGranpa started a fight down at the Whiskey ShackIn the town out of timeLike voices n whispers in that empty silver mineSomehow history lives on in the town out of time©2007 Robert George