Like, you truly believe that you walk away from anything you've done?
Let me tell you something about this town
This town we live in
Twenty-two years ago
A group of men from this town
Took a girl, a young girl
And they, uh...well they did what groups of drunk men do
She was just walking
Walked right by them, by their bar
And a day later
She was floating in a river
Now, they caught the men
And the men denied what they did
The men's wives said something to the effect of
'They didn't do it but even if they did she probably was dressed like a slut'
You know, we talk about Iran in this country
We talk about Afghanistan
And how Islamic barbarians treat women
But what we DON'T talk about
Are drunk townies who rape young women
And dump them in water then go home and make love to their wives still smelling like...
And the wives say--
'They're innocent either way'
Either way
I'm still going to make my husband scrambled eggs tomorrow
Their kids defended their dads
But they're kids so we can't blame them, right?
The girl came from a family with two other kids
And a single mom
So they all moved out of town
Because people were writing the word 'slut' on their garage
And everybody moved on
But you know...
Now we have hurricanes
Let me repeat that
Now, we have hurricanes
You see, the kids of those fathers grew up
Went to school, learned
Became academic
The whole town
Suddenly took on this sort of...bookish flavor
And in the back of everybody's minds
Is that girl
That girl they found in the river
Bruised, bloated
Violated
The slut who was in the wrong place
At the wrong time
You get what I'm saying?
And everybody wants to talk about culture now
They want to talk about political issues
They want to discuss eight-hundred page books
Over expensive coffee
And they don't want to talk about
Which one of their dads
Was the first
To unzip his pants
Because there's no way
To academically look at that
You know?
It's impossible
So the kids
Do the same thing
Their dads weren't smart enough to do
They bury it
Because nobody was convicted
Because nobody would testify
Because this was and is a small town
And people mind their own business
And defend their families
Whatever it takes
Except now
We have hurricanes
And even though we say
It's a fluke
It's just weather
Weather patterns
Weird global warming shit
The truth is--
We're a deeply religious people
Who started veering away from that
The day a bunch of men decided
They were going to say 'screw it'
And do exactly what they wanted to do
And then they were going to skip church in the morning
Because God left them to die
In a town that always smells like cod
A town that never in its wildest dreams
Imagined that one day
It would be called 'a college town'
A town that didn't realize
That all it takes to become a college town
Is to have an entire generation
Become scared to death of the real world
And to do nothing
Nothing
But go to college
And learn about
How awful their parents are
While--at the same time
Abandoning their beliefs
And their history
At the very same time
But the thing about history
And the thing about family history
And family beliefs
Is that when you bury it
It shakes the earth
And you have earthquakes
And when you bury it in water
It makes waves
And wind
And hurricanes
So now
We have hurricanes
Now, I don't like to invoke 'wrath of God,' but...
It does seem odd to me
Incredibly odd
That a generation once removed from
God-fearing fisherman
Are now experiencing
A natural-driven nightmare
And they keep right on talking
About the books
And the opera
And the abstract
There are hurricanes
There are nothing but hurricanes
And nobody wants to talk
About it
Because it's obvious
And twenty-two years ago
We stopped talking
About the obvious
Because the obvious says--
You can't do whatever you want
And expect
That there won't
Be consequences
Do you get that?
I bet you do
But the problem is
You're not from here
So what good does it do, you know?
But who knows
Who knows what the weather's like
Where you're from
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