THE PORTLAND DREAM GROWS DARK

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