Totems from Glimpses by Mark Perry

Totems

i drive by tiny wooden houses
Weather beaten and about to fall
Old roads tell stories.
Soon nobody will recall
Laughs and hopes and dreams
Echo down those halls.

Kitsalt was a company town
Paved streets and grass cut
Now the gates and doors and windows
are all locked shut
the mine closed one rainy day
and the people went away

There are lines here that connect us.
and They link us to the past
Old dreams and totem poles - never last
they just fade and fall,
They fade…and fall away

This guitar is old and cracked
But it sounds better in so many ways
It’s been here with me
Even in my darkest days
I pick it up and enjoy
It’s beautiful decay

totem poles at Skidigate
They ran straight into the air
now they lean and they are cracked
and soon they won’t be there.
that old native man told me
they go back into the land
where they turn to dust and sand
That’s the way it’s always been
that’s the way it’s meant to be

• Americana folk
• Folk
• singer-songwriter
• Smithers