Nothing much has changed in Nowheresville in the last decade or so, has it?
There’s no water left here in the river,
There’s no frogs or skinks or ducks or swans,
There’s no jobs in the towns outside the cities,
The economic miracle’s been and gone.
There’s no-one left out here in Nowheresville,
No horses left out in the one-horse-towns,
The banks have up & gone, like the frogs & ducks & swans,
The country’s dead but it just won’t lie down.
Like the fighter, who’s had just one too many fights,
Like the drinker, who’s stayed out just one too many nights,
Like the farmers and their kin, worn hard & frail & thin,
It gets so you’re afraid to go to bed at night.
Afraid of what you’ll wake to in the morning,
The dollar’s up & commodities are shot to hell,
And on top of that the drought has brought the smell of death & doubt,
And it’s better to let the stock rot where they fell.
We ain’t seen no Rural Reconstruction here,
We’ve just seen our kids desert the farms,
We ain’t ever seen no level playing field,
Our wounds might heal but we still bear the scars.
Reprise: Descant:
There’s no water left here in the river, It’s all gone,
There’s no frogs or skinks or ducks or swans, They’re all gone,
No jobs in the towns outside the cities, They’re all rationalised,
The economic miracle’s been and gone. Wave it goodbye.
© David Burne, All Rights reserved, Control, August 1999
