The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #91418   Message #1739435
Posted By: GUEST
12-May-06 - 07:57 PM
Thread Name: Favorite Lines
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
"It's a sign I'm getting on in years,
When nothing new seems welcome to these eyes and ears."

From John Gorka's "Houses In the Fields" -- and really, like Peace, I think it's the whole darned song, or at least the last couplet in every verse, that does it for me, not just a couple of lines. I don't think the song has been posted elsewhere in the forum, so I'll give it to you here:

HOUSES IN THE FIELDS
Written by John Gorka (1991)

They're growing houses in the fields between the towns,
And the Starlight Drive-In movie's closing down,
The road is gone to the way it was before,
And the spaces won't be spaces anymore.

Two more farms were broken by the drought,
First the Wagners now the Fullers pulling out,
Developers paid better than the corn,
But this was not the place where they were born.

CHORUS:

There's houses in the fields, no prayers for steady rain this year,
Houses in the fields, there's houses in the fields,
And the last few farms are growing out of here.

First he wouldn't sell and then he would,
Now there'll be children playing where the silos stood,
The word came from the marrow of his bones,
It was the last sure way to pay off all the loans.

The new streets will be named for kings and queens,
And a ransom will be paid for every castle's dream,
The model sign is crested with a lion,
And the farmers they will have enough to die on.

(CHORUS)

Oh, I guess no one should be afraid of change,
But tell me why is there a fence for every open range?
It's a sign I'm getting on in years,
When nothing new seems welcome to these eyes and ears.

(CHORUS)

They're growing houses in the fields between the towns,
And the Starlight Drive-In movie is all closed down,
The road is gone to the way it was before,
And the spaces won't be spaces anymore,
No, the spaces won't be spaces anymore.