EMPORIA-ESQUE

EMPORIA-ESQUE

EMPORIA-ESQUE

EMPORIA MON AMOUR

THE AKL FRATERNITY HOUSE

GHOST TOWN EMPORIA

SIXTH AND COMMERCIAL

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EMPORIA-ESQUE

I’ve got this dismal depressing—

Attitude toward living in Emporia

I’ve had it ever since I can possibly—

Remember like everybody else

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Well, maybe others don’t feel it—

Many get by nicely from day to day

I suppose they’re the lucky ones—

The ones who simply don’t care

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The ones who accept the daily—

Kansas noir existence as it is

I envy them, they’re so lucky—

With me I’m just a no-good slob

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When did I actually just give up—

When did I simply shrug it off?

Was it when I finally realized—

That I was living in a Hell Hole?

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That there was No Escape—

There was only Emporia-esque?

EMPORIA MON AMOUR

One may surely ask—

Why such a trashy Expose?

Living there in the lovely—

Athens of the Midwest?

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It once had two colleges—

But C of E went belly-up

It always had a problem—

With Presbyterian finances

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Now they run a lucrative—

Retirement home for retirees

But the old Teacher’s College—

Now is the esteemed ESU

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One might ask I suppose—

How things ended up this way?

Now that Higher Education—

Degrees are like worth shit?

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Maybe it’s because the hope—

For Middle Class Advancement

Still seems to trump the old—

You Know What Routine?

THE AKL FRATERNITY HOUSE

Kitty-corner from my home—

There on Tenth & Constitution

Stands the lovely Art Deco—

Streamline Moderne Apartments

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It was called the Senate—

For many years in Emporia

A really classy piece of modern—

Architecture I used to think

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Like the Civic Auditorium—

Where did they get the money?

It used to have apartments—

I knew several of the residents

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And then the AKL Fraternity—

Bought the place for theirs

It’s nice to know that ESU—

Fine upstanding campus youth

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Have resuscitated the Frat—

System of Young Fellowship

Life goes on as they say—

I wish them all the best

GHOST TOWN EMPORIA

I simply hate to be a—

Cassandra predicting doom

The tragic fall of Troy—

And all that sort of thing

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But anyone can see now—

The Kansas lifestyle is gone

The whole Economics of—

Agriculture has changed

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Factory farms abound—

No more families out there

Little Kansas towns now—

Abandoned, simply ruins

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Economics, education—

What would one like expect?

It’s just the way it is—

Welcome to Ghost Town USA

SIXTH AND COMMERCIAL

I used to think that—

Sixth and Commercial

Was the Topocosmic—

Center of the Universe

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Braced by the Banks—

Mainlining East and West

All the way down to—

Commercial & the Tracks

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As if the World revolved—

Around the Santa Fe

But have you noticed—

Emporia has dried up?

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Not just Flint Hills Mall—

But all the businesses?

Dare I go down the list—

All the Kansas ghost towns?

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What will Emporia KS—

Look like in the future?

I hate to say so but—

Can you imagine a Dump?