The elders of nations met and conferred,
on August full moon light.
They talked about a canine they had seen.
He was real, but also as a dream.
Over pipe and fire they agreed, he would be known as:
FRANKLIN.
The homesteaders felt vulnerable, though determined.
Each precise plot was theirs to own and seed.
Their territorial impulses were aligned, and they agreed,
that nighttime brought a wolf of lore,
the likes, they had not seen before.
A Talisman they thought he might be,
for their fleeting security.
They caucused and agreed.
They would name him, oh yes, they would indeed name him:
FRANKLIN.
The traders and the cavalry,
the scouts and postal sentry.
The coach captains of the new west.
All, it seems, exchanged arresting moments,
of eye, fang and drawn back ear,
though strangely they did not fear.
An icon of reconciliation, ’twas clear he be.
With admiration they spoke his name! They spoke his name!
FRANKLIN.
The great trains upon track newly laid.
A forebear of interstate highways in future times paved.
From Pullman windows, upon twilit prairie seas.
The grasses, crevasses and moonlit mountain sheen:
All were places witnessed, where mythic yet real protection reigned supreme.
In their silent minds, all travelers knew their trust was to be placed in:
FRANKLIN.
Prayers long ago scribed, memorized.
Assimilations undergone and awry.
Reshaping and new framing, of victor’s accounts,
cannot erase those with hearts full and stout.
They remember their forebears tales,
of sweetness and valor and possibilities shared.
They still speak of him.
FRANKLIN.
credits
from Kinda Sorta,
released September 14, 2019
Tom Hedrick: Vocal, Electric Guitar, Fretless Electric Bass, Piano, Manic Drum Loop Acrobatics
Recorded at The Curve, April and May 2019 – Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
Minneapolis-based power pop and experimental artist. Influenced heavily by The Beatles, VU, Zappa, Brian Wilson, Todd Rundgren and a number of jazz greats.
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