by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
To every thing there is a season - turn, turn, turn - and all that stuff. Here in the Midwest there are two seasons for dead skunks along the roadway: a week or two in early spring, and a week or two in the fall. Skunks get run down in the spring as they are concentrating on mating and not paying attention to the cars, and, I suspect, that in the fall they are scurrying around looking for places to burrow down and spend the winter - and dream of mating in the spring - while completely forgetting about those danged cars!
Today as Miss Patti and I were motivating from her home in southwest Missouri to my little place in the south central part of the state, we encountered a bunch of dead skunks along the highways and byways of northern Arkansas - five to be exact. We also came upon two dead raccoons and two deceased opossums. All of that roadway carnage put me in mind of Loudon Wainwright III's briefly popular "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road." (For Judy Garland fans, Loudon Wainwright is the father of singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, one of whose claims to fame was his own performance of Judy Garland's famous concert at Carnegie Hall - a concert in which he sang the original score that Judy had sung in the same venue decades earlier. It was a very campy tribute to the legendary American vocalist and movie star.)
Who is Miss Patti, you ask? We will cover that happy development in Pa Rock's life in a future blog post.
But for today, please join with me in enjoying Loudon Wainwright's ode to the skunks that failed to make it all the way across the road. It ain't Shakespeare, but I suspect the Bard of Avon would have fancied the lyrics and perhaps sung along!
(Now, if you are living in a twenty-first century home, repeat after me: "Alexa, play 'Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road' - level five!")
Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road
by Loudon Wainwright, III
Crossing the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn't see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are
You got your dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinking to high heaven
Take a whiff on me, that ain't no rose
Roll up your window and hold your nose
You don't have to look and you don't have to see
'Cause you can feel it in your olfactory
You got your dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
And it's stinking to high heaven
Yeah, you got your dead cat and you got your dead dog
On a moonlight night, you got your dead toad frog
Got your dead rabbit and your dead raccoon
The blood and the guts, they're gonna make you swoon
You got your dead skunk in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinking to high heaven
C'mon, stink
You got it, it's dead, it's in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinking to high heaven
All over the road
Technicolor
Oh, you got pollution
It's dead, it's in the middle
And it's stinking to high, high heaven
Poetry Appreciator
To every thing there is a season - turn, turn, turn - and all that stuff. Here in the Midwest there are two seasons for dead skunks along the roadway: a week or two in early spring, and a week or two in the fall. Skunks get run down in the spring as they are concentrating on mating and not paying attention to the cars, and, I suspect, that in the fall they are scurrying around looking for places to burrow down and spend the winter - and dream of mating in the spring - while completely forgetting about those danged cars!
Today as Miss Patti and I were motivating from her home in southwest Missouri to my little place in the south central part of the state, we encountered a bunch of dead skunks along the highways and byways of northern Arkansas - five to be exact. We also came upon two dead raccoons and two deceased opossums. All of that roadway carnage put me in mind of Loudon Wainwright III's briefly popular "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road." (For Judy Garland fans, Loudon Wainwright is the father of singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, one of whose claims to fame was his own performance of Judy Garland's famous concert at Carnegie Hall - a concert in which he sang the original score that Judy had sung in the same venue decades earlier. It was a very campy tribute to the legendary American vocalist and movie star.)
Who is Miss Patti, you ask? We will cover that happy development in Pa Rock's life in a future blog post.
But for today, please join with me in enjoying Loudon Wainwright's ode to the skunks that failed to make it all the way across the road. It ain't Shakespeare, but I suspect the Bard of Avon would have fancied the lyrics and perhaps sung along!
(Now, if you are living in a twenty-first century home, repeat after me: "Alexa, play 'Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road' - level five!")
Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road
by Loudon Wainwright, III
Crossing the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn't see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are
You got your dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinking to high heaven
Take a whiff on me, that ain't no rose
Roll up your window and hold your nose
You don't have to look and you don't have to see
'Cause you can feel it in your olfactory
You got your dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
And it's stinking to high heaven
Yeah, you got your dead cat and you got your dead dog
On a moonlight night, you got your dead toad frog
Got your dead rabbit and your dead raccoon
The blood and the guts, they're gonna make you swoon
You got your dead skunk in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinking to high heaven
C'mon, stink
You got it, it's dead, it's in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinking to high heaven
All over the road
Technicolor
Oh, you got pollution
It's dead, it's in the middle
And it's stinking to high, high heaven
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