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There’s no one home

They all left a long time ago

This place was a prosperous place in a prosperous time

There was always something to do

Always somewhere to go

Visitors would come and go

But they’d spend some time here

We’d get to know them, at least a little

Everybody knew everybody

That didn’t mean we liked them

But we liked them well enough to make this town a home for all

In the Rain, Hail, Wind and Sun.

In the Snow, Sleet and Floodwaters alike

We’d stick together

For the greater good, not the good of the greater

Sunday morning church and Saturday football, these two religions would co-exist

Then it happened

We knew it was coming

The motorway was coming

It would be great for us, right?

No more passing truckers or biker gangs tearing up our main street

No more traffic crawls as the holiday crowds made their way to some place else.

They’d plan their vacations at the Gulf, the theme parks or some Grand hole in the ground.

They’d stop here and buy food, drinks, fuel and cigarettes

And then they’d leave and we may see them again same time next year.

When the motorway came we’d see them alright

They stop at the stations dotted along the freeway, not far from our town

They may see a sign of a town they used to go through

They may remember us kindly and wonder, how has this new road helped this little town?

We stayed for a while as did some other folk

But it got lonely for us

The new road took our passer-by friends away

They spend their money at multi-national business dotted along the freeway

Their money goes somewhere that’s not here

We’re gone now, so are our family and friends

My memories of our little town where we lived stay with me

Part of me is still there

All of me wants to go back

But the spirit has gone

We now live in homes dotted along a freeway

With the hum of the cars and trucks to keep us company

I wonder at our never ending quest to make things faster, easier, more convenient

Is that’s your life’s brief?

To make things faster, easier and more convenient?

To be lazy and uninspired?

It’s not mine, but who am I to ask such questions?

I’ll tell you who I am

I’m a human being

Wanting more than the easy way.