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... a spoken word piece...

lyrics

Hamilton, Ontario

This crazy old man
on Main Street in Hamilton, Ontario
plays an outrageous squacking noise
on the harmonica
for loose change,
inhaling,
exhaling,
wailing any old note,
sounding like a bagpipe being eaten by a goat.

He rolls his eyes,
flails his free arm in circles,
skips this crazy crippled-up dance,
bobbing and stumbling
up and down and around.
It is the saddest sight you could ever look upon.

And I’m standing
in the smelter swelter summer stink
of Hamilton, Ontario -
eyes stinging with the yellow acid
from Defasco and Stelco in the air
and the diesel fumes
gassed from the asses
of the goddamn transit buses
in the same t-shirt and black jeans
I was wearing
when I got on a Greyhound
in Vancouver
4 days ago.
Dumb bum broke.

And I’m thinking, y’know,
you reach a point, inevitably,
where you can’t count on anything.
You can’t count on the buses being on schedule
or the bank being open.
You can’t count on your lover
to not love another
for the month that you are gone.
You can’t count on the functions of your body:
your eyes to see clearly,
your ears to hear,
your heartbeat,
your next breath,
your spidey sense.

You can’t count on the calendar,
the clock
or the weathervane,
or that you’ve got it together
when it’s obvious
that the rest of this world
is completely insane.

You can’t count on the number
on the cigarette package
to connect you with the guy
you met in the bar the night before
who said he’d give you a free ride
to Toronto in the morning.

But you can always count on the fact
that that crazy old man
will be dancing around
on Main Street in Hamilton, Ontario
like a park pigeon
with all its feathers caught on fire.

And there’s some small piece of hope in that.

credits

from Something Wicken This Way Comes, released January 1, 1995
Wicken: Vocals

Written by Scott Wicken. Engineered by Dave Mockford. Produced by Dave Mockford and Scott Wicken. Executive Producer Bryan Becker.

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Scott Wicken Waterloo, Ontario

Scott Wicken is a singer/songwriter/musician/spoken word artist/poet based in Waterloo, Ontario. He's been part of the artistic/musical communities in Vancouver, Yellowknife, Edmonton and has performed in bars, cafes, art galleries and festivals across Canada. His work pays special attention to the lyric. Currently, he is a member of City'N'Eastern, an acoustic trio of original music. ... more

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