Port Marie

7 September 98

bank closes at four, you're still there at two
one more drink with your numbers
then out into what's left of the streetlight night
like you're reluctant to share this air
taxi drivers, deli owners
night clerks, light sleepers
a thousand miles of empty road
coil around a vacant harbor

they've stopped building towns like this

I wanted to be the next hero
statue pointing from town hall towards the sea
I wanted to wake this weary town
bells ringing the dreams of Port Marie

all I needed was time to pace the walls
learn their current dimensions
but you can't see anywhere from here
so dig all you want, you're not going deeper

I remember the last night I still believed
Orion stood guard over Meter Hill
we threw bottles into the quarry
before they fenced it off, before those two girls died
we drew our names in calligraphic tire tracks
behind the junior high school
a thousand miles of road to ourselves
we raced the dawn back home

I've forgotten both of our faces

I wanted to be the next hero
statue pointing from town hall towards the sea
I wanted to wake this weary town
bells ringing the dreams of Port Marie

all I needed was time to pace the walls
learn their current dimensions
but you can't see anywhere from here
so dig all you want, you're not going deeper

bank opens at eight you're still home at ten
day's eye getting harder to thread into
what passes for traffic glides light to light
too close to get fast enough to fly
prison guards, retired miners
night-school teachers, late-shift nurses
anybody with wings left long ago
their abandoned shells play static

so why do we keep listening?

I wanted to be the next hero
statue pointing from town hall towards the sea
I wanted to wake this weary town
bells ringing the dreams of Port Marie

all I needed was time to pace the walls
learn their current dimensions
but you can't see anywhere from here
so dig all you want, you're not going deeper

I wanted to set sail from these piers
they used to touch the horizon
I wanted to tear down or build up walls
I never did decide

all I needed was time to find the paths
all I needed was strength to lift this sky
all I wanted was somewhere far away
all I got was this desk, I'm not going deeper