Linford and Karen Berquist
Over the rhine, “ohio,”
from: ohio, 2003
“Hello Ohio
The back roads
I know Ohio
Like the back of my hand
Alone Ohio
Where the river bends
And it’s strange to see your story end
In my life I’ve seen a thousand dreams
Through the threshers all torn to pieces
And the land lay bare
Someone turned a profit there
And a good son lost his life in a strip pit
Hello Ohio
The back roads
I know Ohio
Like the back of my hand
Alone Ohio
Where the river bends
And it’s strange to see your story end
When the sun went down we would all leave town
And light our fires in the Egypt Bottom
And the reservoir was just as good for Joni
’Cause we knew we would
Dream out loud in the night air
Holly said, Don’t go inside the children’s home
Mary said, Don’t leave your man alone
Valerie was singin’ to the radio
Ohio
It was summertime in ‘83
We were burnin’ out at the rubber tree
Wonderin’ what in the world
Would make all this worthwhile
And if I knew then, oh I was older then
Would I see regret to the last mile
Hello Ohio
The back roads
I know Ohio
Like the back of my hand
Alone Ohio
Where the river bends
And it’s strange to see your story end
How I hate to see your story end
It’s so sad to see your story end”
Husband and wife duo Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist took as their name the section of Cincinnati they came from: Over-The-Rhine, “where the river bends.” This Rust Belt elegy can evoke in all of us the lost worlds where we grew up.
-Charlie Blaum-
