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Lyric of the Week: SHORE POINTS (EPILOGUE)

(And so it was

Three left lanes to the shore points

All roads lead to the shore points.)


Well we heard it on the highway

On our way down to the shore

It was broadcast with the immediacy

of a cannon blast from a battery

of the coast defense artillery

that exists no more.

Down the turnpike, down the parkway

In the lazy lethargy of an August day

Threading our way down 36 along the bay

We set off to explore.


Through all the Bayshore towns to Atlantic Highlands

Headed for the shifting sands and barrier islands

Atop Mt. Mitchill looking down at Sandy Hook

And across the bay at all the oppression we shook

With the wide-open ocean over open sights

Dazzled by the diamonds of the morning light

Exit 117

All roads lead to the shore points.


The wreckage of what once was lies hard and stark

What can be only moves in fits and starts

Born to run, glory days, and dancing in the dark

Everybody here has got a hungry heart

Waiting for the fire to be lit by the spark

In the still-struggling city of Asbury Park

Exit 102

All roads lead to the shore points.

Amusement piers in ethereal lights

Orbit through the summer like satellites

Droves of nascent heavy metalites

Wander the planks in search of noisy delights

To satisfy long restless reckless nights

In the endless parade of Seaside Heights

Exit 82

All roads lead to the shore points.


Barnegat (Light) and Loveladies, sea and sky

Harvey Cedars and Surf City, rent or buy

Ship Bottom and Beach Haven, both low and high

The parties are never in short supply

It lives for summer, that no one can deny

Long Beach Island, alias LBI

Exit 63

All roads lead to the shore points.


Gleaming, polished up, and pretty

Bumps butts with the down and gritty

Successful take-your-chancers all giddy

Thinking they beat the regulating committee

Oh Lord, on the losers have pity

Hypnotized by the lure of Atlantic City

Exit 40 and 38

All roads lead to the shore points.


Five mile beach with distractions aplenty

Like the above-named Seaside multiplied by twenty

All tacky chic and junkfood America

In sunbeaten libidinous never-neverland hysteria

A honky-tonk Shangri-La going back to many lost childhoods

In the doo-wop cheeze and boardwalk sleaze of the Wildwoods

Exit 4

All roads lead to the shore points.

At the very bottom of the GS Parkway

Where the ocean meets the mouth of Delaware Bay

On the southern tip of the state, there lay

A paradise of candyland palaces painted pretty and gay

Watch the brilliant sunset at the end of the long day

Drawn to the spiritual magnet of Cape May

Exit 0

All roads lead to the shore points.


We’ve taken this journey, now what does it all mean?

Is it all a blowing wind or a fleeting dream?

In a time when fear and terror dominate the scene

And the Great Creator’s name is co-opted or blasphemed

Such quests of the spirit are sure to seem

Superfluous, meaningless, and not worthy of esteem

No more exits

But

All roads lead to the shore points.


So here you have it—127 miles of strand

Vying for the position of this side’s holy land

A trek, a pilgrimage, was what was called for

To survey and claim this place we call the Jersey Shore

We’ve reached the land of dreams, with the help of The One

We can end the song, close the book, now the epic is done

Exits 11, 9, and 2; 117 through 0

All roads lead to the shore points.


©2024 The Hesh Inc.

Detail of "On the Way to Cape May" - original AI art by The Hesh Inc.
All roads lead to the shore points.

This is the short version of a much longer lyrical travelogue describing my journeys and observations from one end of the Jersey Shore to the other and points beyond, as well as a farewell anthem to a long and eventful summer. It is to be the coup de grace, the finishing touch, the last hammer blow of my massive Soul In Exile opus, when I finally record it.

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