A Town Called Yesterday
#49 of poetry
I certainly didn't forget to upload this and then only remember months later when it got read on Voice of Dog and I went looking for the link only to dicover that there wasn't one! Nope!
Anyway, you can listen to a reading of this on the Voice of Dog podcast here: https://www.thevoice.dog/episode/a-town-called-yesterday-by-rob-macwolf-read-by-crimson-ruari
It was somewhere in the riverlands I found it by the shore,
A town lit just with christmas lights. I'd swear I'd been before.
The sun was down, the tide was out, the wind was in the west.
And since it looked so peaceful there, I sat me down to rest.
An old man sat beside me and he spoke up "Hoi there, son.
Of all the places in the world, your way led to this one?
Well son you're fuckin lucky then, s'not many find their way,
To the town called yesterday."
Cause in the town called yesterday there's no rent coming due,
And if you're feelin hungry there's a hot meal there for you.
And there's a place that's waitin' there, for you, and one for me
Where sunset sinks into the sunset sea.
He said to me "Come walk the streets a while and take the air.
You'll find that it's the sweetest that they're breathin' anywhere.
And if you need a place to lay your head, don't be distressed,
My sofa's old, but comfortable, if you should need a rest."
"I hope that you enjoy it. For you won't be staying long.
This is the town of yesterday: tomorrow you'll be gone.
Young folk do sometimes visit, but they don't know how to stay
Within the town of yesterday."
And in the town of yesterday policemen are unknown,
And who you are and who you love's no business but your own.
There aint no jails, no student loans. There everybody's free
As moonlit clouds above the silver sea.
The old man said "You'll be all right. Your road ahead is long.
There's many turns you've yet to make. Some of em will be wrong.
And life is gonna change you as it leads you on your way
Back to a town called yesterday."
For in the town of yesterday nobody is bereaved.
Tis there you're reunited with everyone you've grieved.
I hear it's got another name, but I prefer to say
That it's the town of yesterday.
It's many a road that's changed me. It's many a mile I've trod.
It's many a man I've met bowed down before the wrath of god.
But I remember christmas lights, that light a seaside town.
So no matter how wrathful, no god could grind me down.
And now I am an old man. The road I left behind
When somewhere in the riverlands a town I chanced to find.
So son you get back on the road, and someday find your way
Back here to the town of yesterday.
And life is gonna change you fore you're ready to return.
But here's a place prepared for you that you've no need to earn.
The road ahead of you is long, so stay the night with me
Where stars reflect off of a quiet sea.