The One-Line Lyric Challenge

I am a Town

Today's song is by Mary Chapin Carpenter, an American country and folk music singer-songwriter. This is from her best selling album Come on, Come on. Now, I admit I'm not much of a fan of country music as a genre, but there are definitely exceptions. And most of those exceptions lean more on the folk or bluegrass side and less on the country.

Don't worry if you aren't a country fan either; this song isn't particularly country.

It is, however, very pretty in a haunting way. Mary Chapin is such a great songwriter and lyricist.

Song Prompt: "I am a Town" by Mary Chapin Carpenter



Lyrics: ▼

I'm a town in Carolina
I'm a detour on a ride
For a phone call and a soda
I'm a blur from the driver's side
I'm the last gas for an hour
if you're going twenty-five
I am Texaco and tobacco
I am dust you leave behind

I am peaches in September,
and corn from a roadside stall
I'm the language of the natives
I'm a cadence and a drawl
I'm the pines behind the graveyard
And the cool beneath their shade
Where the boys have left their beer cans
I am weeds between the graves

My porches sag and lean with old black men and children
My sleep is filled with dreams, I never can fulfill them
I am a town

I am a church beside the highway
where the ditches never drain
I'm a Baptist like my daddy,
and Jesus knows my name
I am memory and stillness
I am lonely in old age
I am not your destination
I am clinging to my ways
I am a town

I'm a town in Carolina
I am billboards in the fields
I'm an old truck up on cinder blocks
missing all my wheels
I am Pabst Blue Ribbon, American,
and 'Southern Serves the South'
I am tucked behind the Jaycees sign
on the rural route

I am a town
I am a town, southbound

Similar to what Mary-Chapin did, you can pick something to personify, or write a story or poem around a single overarching metaphor. This is good practice if you struggle with figurative, non-literal writing. A good metaphor is a body builder training for a competition. It does a lot of heavy lifting.

Or write about the town you grew up in. Or just write whatever the song inspires.

Good luck!