A young family from inner SE Portland, c. 1987
Move to Portland, it’ll be fun they say
You’ll learn to love clouds on a sunny day
It might be weird but you’ll like that
Bring your flannel and a lumberjack hat
Move to Portland and bring your skills
The new people know how to find the deals
Where food is organic, free roaming, and local
Until you find out you’re living in Bhopal
The LA gas leak sickens the ‘hood
Until sun and surf don’t sound so good
It’s hard to live when you’re too sick to breath
And all you think about is packing to leave
That’s not Portland, the special River City
Where a cancer cluster shows no pity
Where life is not supposed to be so hard
In a dream house with two cats in the yard
Flint Michigan water runs dirty and brown
Like the Willamette River through Bridge Town
Pollution news stirs people to fright
Another reason to keep out of sight
Southeast Portland lures smart people there
To Division, Clinton, and Hawthorne street fair
When a silent killer lurks overhead
They’ll start moving to Pittsburgh instead
About David Gillaspie
