No Remorse - Both Audio and Text

Far too many small towns are slowly dying out, how incredibly sad... On a run we took to see our brand new grandson last July, we’d left ourselves some extra time so we could veer off course And check the current status of the town that I’d grown up in… up to 1895! That town was called --- Remorse. Fairly free of time constraints, we planned on staying over, then hitting Nell’s Café for breakfast - if it were still there - First thing in the morning…only one of several mem’ries my wife and I - to while away the hours - chose to share. But after thoroughly checking we’d discovered that Remorse - the same as many other towns its size - has no hotel, And had to book a room about eleven miles away in a slightly bigger town, across the river, called --- La Belle. Both have been around since just before the Civil War, and, being on the river, both had prospered for a while, But, gradually, the bigger towns would lure the struggling merchants to where there was more emphasis on classiness and style. The tendency for doing that is much the same today. The bigger towns are typically the fastest ones to grow, But I, for one…unless I absolutely must to make ends meet… refuse to make a home where I can just as easily go To buy the things my fam’ly needs. I’ll stick with tiny towns, and patronize their tiny shops, to help them to survive. And - even if it costs a wee bit more to have my way - saving ancient towns like these, to me, is worth the drive. In 1895 we moved to Boston Massachusetts, with - even then - a half a million people living there, But even though the countless shops were stocked with “finer goods” - most with which the sort from tiny towns could not compare - If Remorse today could somehow be the way it was back when we were 21, I swear…with what we know… I could see us moving back, and doing all we could to figure out a way to guarantee the town would grow! But now - an actual ghost town - we were stunned by what we found, with every businesses shuttered that, back then, had teemed with life! The Mercantile - now boarded up - was where folks bought their clothes, and where - because she’d worked there for a while….I’d met my wife. The barbershop - where men would tend to congregate each day and wag their tongues - lying prone on a tipped-back leather chair - Now displayed a calendar from 1923, But aside from that, and one old broom, the entire shop was bare! And the livery stable - run, back then, by father’s uncle, Leroy - where dad had done some blacksmith work on weekends now and then - Looked as though it hadn’t seen a horse in fifty years, and - given the way the building’s leaning…never will again. We fin’ly reached the door to where we’d planned on eating breakfast, and I can guarantee you, friend, that it’s been many a day Since anyone…except perhaps a few of Remorse’s mice… has gathered ‘round a table for a meal at Nell’s Café! Thinking back, I s’pose it made no sense to disregard the fact that we’d not seen Remorse in nearly 70 years! We moved when I was twenty-one…I’m close to ninety now… but I’m prepared to bet a buck that nearly all my peers Prob’ly feel the same about the town where they grew up. Remorse was such a safe and happy town when we were kids, And we both feel that…just to have some slightly “finer stuff”… We’d never again exchange our “childhood DIDN’T-s”, for - “grown-up DID-s”! And as I stood there, reminiscing - racing through my mind was me - out riding bareback - on my feisty yearling horse! But now…with every business closed…and many homes abandoned… despite the map still shows it…there is, sadly.....no Remorse! PS: I've now got 4 new Audio-CDs - @ 4 1/2 hours each = (62 diversely varied pieces). They’re listed on EBAY - under - “Mark Stellinga Poetry” - or available by simply contacting me at -- mark@writerofbooks.com -- should those of you who enjoy listening to poems as well as reading them - and particularly those of you that travel - care to be so entertained. (We use safe and simple - PayPal) Cheers, Mark