A Place for Carnivals

Here's where we have the carnivals
But it ain't good for much else

In the summer
The tilt-a-whirl's set up

The try-your-luck stands
And the cotton candy machines

The strength testers
And the Ferris Wheel

Some of us wish they'd just leave the whole thing up
Year round

But in the Fall
They take it apart

And suddenly our skyline
Goes back to being ordinary

That's when the men meet at night
In the lot, drinking and playing cards on upside down trashcans

During the day, an old woman walks her dead husband's dog there
And finds the broken bottles and the scattered change

Kids play baseball there on the weekend
And smoke cigarettes they stole from their mothers' purses

One girl traces a line in the dirt
Where the Ferris wheel was set up

This is where I got my first kiss, she says
This is where I fell in love

She thinks back to late July
When the boy off to fight asked her to go for a ride

Her brothers make fun of her now
But she knows she isn't the first girl to fall in love on a Ferris wheel

Years ago, the old woman walking her dog
Fell in love with her husband on the very same spot

The men playing cards used to run through the carnival
Back and forth, every Saturday night until they'd fall over laughing

And who the hell knows what we were laughing about, one thinks
And who the hell knows what we were running from either

One day a wind is gonna sweep across town
And everything but the line that girl drew in the dirt will be gone

We've always been a ghost town, someone says
We were just waiting for the ghosts to show up

A string instrument starts playing
And the sand rolls in up to the chests of young children

Doors are slammed shut
School is cancelled

The mayor asks for help from the state
But the phone calls go unanswered

Some people try driving out and away
But they only get as far as the town line before their cars burn up

Somewhere, overseas, a soldier tries calling his girl back home
And the operator tells him she can't find his home

Maybe I spelled the name wrong, he says, confused
No, she says, almost sensing where this is going, it just doesn't exist

From out of the dust comes a fairway
A blue and green flashing stretch that blooms more than it rises

A dog barks, men run, a young girl drops a picture someone took
Of her and a young man holding each other--the background just a blur of light and fog

She lets the photo fall to the ground, so she can put her hand over her stomach
And touch the finger that never felt a ring

Then the carnival music starts
And the summer begins again